Long Winding Road
by SixPerfections
Summary: The scoobs make some questionable decisions to save Buffy's life. Willow is treading a dangerous path. Starting at the end of S04, Faith ends up fighting with the scoobs but it's a seriously messed up situation. Eventual B/F.
1. Chapter 1

Long A/N:

1. This story starts after BtvS s04e15-16 where Faith wakes up from her coma and does the whole Bodyswap gig. It is also after AtS s01e18-19 which is where Faith tries to commit suicide by Angel and is put on the path of redemption by Angel (and in which Buffy shows up and gets way overpissed and kinda petty IMO). If you haven't seen those episodes or haven't seen them in a long time I really recommend you do. Not only are they insanely awesome in terms of character development (for both Faith and Angel) and some of the best TV I've ever seen, but it sets the tone/mood for when this story starts.

2. Why I think this story is different: Most Faith stories either change S3 of BtvS or pick up after Faith's redemption/gotten herself under control after spending years in prison. Nothing wrong with that. This is a different twist on how Faith gets pulled back from the darkness. Here the Scoobies have to deal with all their feelings right away while Faith has to start dealing with her problems one bit at a time. Hopefully it will make it something of an original (and hopefully good feels) story.

3. I'm changing one big canon thing right away: as soon as Buffy gets back from L.A. she has the whole fight with Adam and all the stuff in 'The Yoko Factor' happens in S4. In this story there will be a significant delay from when she gets back from L.A. and the rest of the S4 picks up.

4. There will likely be a lot of changes to canon as the story goes on.

5. One thing that drives me nuts about 'Sanctuary' in AtS and then 'The Yoko Factor' in BtvS is that Angel in Sanctuary stands up for himself and his ideals and puts Buffy in her place when IMO she was clearly in the wrong. She then says some purposeful hurtful mean things to him and he tells her to leave. It was such a powerful moment from him and truly separated AtS from BtvS. But the powerful effect and growth on Angel is totally undermined when he comes crawling back to Sunnydale to apologize. In AtS Angel is interesting and complex and totally awesome. When he shows back up in BtvS he's a whipped little bitch. Just saying. So in my story there won't be any Angel crawling back to apologize to Buffy when she was the one being really mean/petty and in the wrong (IMO). But I guess I kind of get his whole 'I didn't want to leave things wrong between us' thing. He just really didn't need to come with his tail between his legs.

6. As you can probably tell by now I like Angel (AtS version) and there are some things only he can help Faith with that I don't think anyone else in the BtvS universe would be able to. Except maybe the Ripper. Hmm reform of Faith by former evil Giles somehow playing the Angel role and leading her to redemption? Now that is an interesting future Fic idea :D.

7. There are chunks of dialogue taken straight from AtS episode 'Sanctuary' here. It should be pretty obvious what that dialogue is. This whole chapter is setting up the context for the rest of the story.

8. Again if you haven't seen/don't remember seeing 'This Year's Girl' 'Who are You?' 'Five by Five' and 'Sanctuary' I say do yourself a favor and go watch those episodes all over again. A must for any Faith fan.

0000

Buffy was out patrolling alone as had been her routine for years. Crossing through Restfield cemetery was so routine that her feet carried her along her route automatically without her paying any attention. She had been brooding over the past three days over that gift that kept on giving. Over that pain in the ass that somehow just keeps coming back trying to mess up, ruin and complicate her life. Over that piece of crap that somehow always managed to cut her in deeper and in more personal ways than any other bad guy ever with the exception of Angelus. In some ways the crazy psychopath got under her skin and hit her harder than even Angelus had. If that was even possible.

She was brooding about Faith. Buffy knew she should let it go and focus on more immediate problems now that the dark slayer was in prison but the irritation and anger hadn't quite left her yet.

To think she had been _concerned_ about Faith when she first woke from her coma close to two weeks ago. Buffy had been worried about her safety, her state of mind, considering if it was possible for her to come back to the side of the white hats now that she was awake from her coma. But noooo Faith had not even been out of her eight month coma for a day before she was back to her old ways. Basically wanting revenge on Buffy for 'stealing her life' though with Faith you never could be sure what was truth and what was lies. The psyco had attacked her in the middle of the university surrounded by tons of innocent students and then had run off when the cops showed. If anything Faith had seemed even more angry and unstable than from before her coma. If that was even possible.

Then came the next day. Faith's particular brand of angry-evil somehow always managed to find a way to hurt Buffy in the most vulnerable and nasty ways.

First the brunette had punched and terrified her mom and would have done who knows what if Buffy had not shown up in time. Then after wrecking half the house in a fight Faith had used some kind of gizmo to _switch their bodies_. Kind of like a bad sci-fi movie. Then in the confusion Faith knocked Buffy unconscious while wearing Buffy's face. Next thing she knew she woke up handcuffed in the back of an ambulance and told she was under arrest for questioning in a murder.

Thinking about what happened next raised Buffy's hackles with anger. She had pieced together most of what had happened by talking to everyone. The first thing the girl had done was go upstairs to her bathroom to take a bath. Knowing Faith she probably had been eager to fondle and touch herself in her 'new' body. Or Buffy's body. That wasn't an idea the blonde slayer wanted to spend any amount of time contemplating. As if that wasn't disturbing enough the girl had had the gall to show up as her to a scooby meeting, gone down to the Bronze to dance and get drunk, insulted Willow's new friend Tara, had flirted in an overly sexual way with _Spike_ of all people (the vampire had refused to spill on the details, and Buffy was both glad and annoyed by that) and booked a flight out of the country with Buffy's credit cards. All while leaving Buffy to rot in prison and be killed by Council assassins.

And then Faith crossed the line. Again. The girl had crossed a lot of lines before but for Buffy this was what had finally broken the camel's back when it came to giving the girl another chance to prove herself one of the good guys. She didn't think she'd ever give the girl another chance after this.

Faith had gone to find _her_ boyfriend and she had sex with him. With her boyfriend! With Riley! Though she knew it wasn't Riley's fault it still had taken her over a week to let Riley start touching her again without jumping and feeling confused and angry. She still resented the whole ordeal and some small stubborn part of her insisted on still being angry at Riley even though in her head she knew it wasn't his fault.

Buffy couldn't remember ever feeling so violated before. So betrayed. The blonde laughed a bitter laugh. She couldn't figure out why she felt so betrayed by Faith. Why the whole thing with Riley felt like personal treason. It's not like she had trusted Faith. Not since Alan Finch and all the lies that followed had Buffy felt comfortable giving the girl much trust in anything. And you can only be betrayed by people you trust right? She should feel angry. Not feel like someone close to her had ruthlessly stabbed her in the back.

Her short bout of insane-o solo laughter had brought her some attention. Three vamps ran around an old mausoleum and charged right at her snarling and screaming with their game faces on.

"Come on, no stop for threats and witty banter before trying to get dinner? Vamp villainy standards have really been going down the drain lately," said Buffy as she drove a fist into the first vamp who reached her. She felt his sternum and ribs break under her fist as he went flying backwards. Total newbie vamp that had no idea how to fight. She could work with that.

The other two, a man and a woman, both tried to tackle her to the ground. They were also newbie vamps, also terrible fighters. Buffy moved out of the way as they missed her and awkwardly collided with each other. The slayer yanked the female vamp by the collar and clotheslined her sending her sprawling to the ground. Buffy quickly produced a stake from her pocket and staked her in the heart.

"Curly's down," quipped Buffy as the vamp turned to dust. "Time for Larry and Moe to go next."

Both remaining vamps were on their feet again facing her but refusing to attack. Buffy took the initiative and charged the one she had broken the sternum and ribs on earlier. It wouldn't slow a vamp much but it would still be enough to make him the easier prey of the two.

She kicked him in the knee and felt the satisfying pop as ligaments tore loose. The vamp dropped to one knee and Buffy kicked him in the face sending him flying back.

The blonde felt the vamp behind her and ducked under a sloppy punch aimed at her head. She turned and grabbed him by the lapels of his coat and kneed him in the gut once, twice, three times. The she kneed him in the groin once, twice, three times. The vamp made some truly pitiful noises as his legs seemed to lose their strength and he wobbled in place.

"Big stupid boyfriends," gritted out Buffy getting out her frustrations. Though the vamp was now cupping his private parts Buffy gave him another vicious kick between the legs out of spite. "Skanky evil sluts," she muttered grabbing hold of the vamp's shirt and punching him the face. "Stupid, God damn… UGHHH!" she let out in rage and delivered a vicious uppercut that broke the vamp's jaw and knocked him on his back. Buffy moved in to stake him as the vamp looked up at her with fear and a 'what are you going on about' look on his face.

Buffy had been so focused that she was caught by surprise when the second vamp jumped on her back. The slayer jammed her stake in his face, causing the vampire to let go and clutch at his injury. Buffy turned and quickly staked him.

When she turned she saw the final vamp attempting to flee. Buffy chased him and caught up to him after only a few steps. Her stake in his back turned him to dust.

Buffy sighed heavily, the rush and thrum of the slaying vibrating through her whole body. The irony of what she had just done didn't escape her. She had been having very angry ticked off thoughts about Faith and had ended up acting in a very Faith-like manner, pummeling vamps to take out her frustrations while fighting stupidly and sloppily. If that vamp that jumped on her back knew what he was doing she could have been in a world of trouble.

That string of thoughts once again brought her mind to her fellow slayer and all that had happened in the last few weeks.

Just when she thought her feelings for the dark slayer couldn't get any more negative, about a week after the whole body swap debacle she had gotten a call from Giles. Apparently he had talked to Angel and he'd told Giles that Faith was in Los Angeles trying to kill him. Buffy had been at first shocked, then horrified, then felt something ugly start to grow inside of her.

Faith _still_ wanted to hurt her! Still wanted to punish Buffy for whatever, when she had tried so hard to help her and given her so many chances! Faith going down to Los Angeles to kill Angel finally broke something in Buffy and gave birth to something new. For the first time Buffy started to feel true hatred for Faith.

Anger is hot and consuming and makes you want to lash out. Hate twists you up inside and leaves something ugly in its place. Too many injuries too quickly from Faith might have been what did it. Too many unresolved issues and pain from the past on top of everything else. The Major, threatening and hurting her friends, betraying them, betraying her. Stealing her body, violating her, and Riley. And now this. One betrayal too many. Everything she had done after the coma had been too far.

After Buffy found out about Faith trying to kill Angel in L.A. she would have stabbed the girl in the gut and thrown her off a roof all over again if the slayer had appeared right in front of her that minute.

Buffy headed down to L.A. right away without much in the way of explanation only telling Riley that she needed to go down for a day or two. The blonde slayer could now admit upon reflection that she had not gone down to L.A. in the best state of mind. She wanted to protect Angel but she wanted to _hurt_ Faith. Buffy felt raw, angry, violated and hopelessly betrayed by Faith. There wasn't a whole lot of rational thought on the way down to L.A., just the curling sensations of anger and hate in her chest and the determination to keep Angel safe by inflicting pain on Faith. Buffy wanted Faith to pay for the pain she had caused her and she was going to use her own two hands to do it.

When she got to L.A. and let herself down to Angel's underground apartment what she saw left her feeling confused, jealous and horrified. Faith was hugging Angel. Angel was hugging Faith. There was Faith and Angel huggage. And Angel's shirt just happened to be most of the way open.

000

**L.A. Three Nights Before**

_Angel gets up: "Buffy. (Angel Buttoning his shirt) I didn't know you..." _

_Buffy: "What..." _

_Buffy looks from him to Faith still sitting on the day bed staring at her bloody hands, then back to Angel. _

_Buffy: "How... What are you doing?" _

_Angel: "She - we were attacked." _

_Buffy: "We? - You and..." _

_Angel: "Faith." _

_Buffy: "You and Faith." _

The first thing that goes through my mind is that they are together now. The horror of that possibility made me physically ill until I got it under control.

_Angel: "Oh, it's not what you think." _

_Buffy: "You actually think that I can form a thought right now? - Giles heard that - that she tried to kill you." _

_Angel: "That's true." _

_Buffy: "So you decided to punish her with a severe cuddling." _

_Angel: "Is that why you're here? To punish her?" _

Yes. That was part of it. But after this… Always count on Faith to throw you a curveball. I was still confused and angry and wanted to pound Faith to hell. Nothing is ever simple.

_Buffy: "I was worried about you." _

_Faith: "Buffy. (Buffy looks at her) "_

I look at Faith and I know my anger is plainly visible on eyes and face. The other slayer can only meet my eyes for a second before they start dart in every direction- everywhere but me. It's plain to see that she's scared of me. I take an ugly form of satisfaction from that.

_Faith: "_ _Oh, god."_

_Buffy walks closer to Faith who is cringing away from her. _

_Buffy: "You didn't think I was going to find you, did you?" _

I look at Faith. She looks pathetic. A mess. She's shaking. There's blood on her hands. She looks at my eyes for a second before glancing fearfully, shamefully down. I don't even stop to consider if it's genuine or not. I'm not moved. Too much has happened.

_Angel: "Buffy, let's talk." _

_Buffy: "Oh, I don't think talk is in order right now." _

_Angel: "She needs help." _

_Buffy whips around to face Angel: "Help? Do you have any idea what she did to me?" _

Of course he doesn't. I don't think anyone truly knows.

_Angel: "Yes." _

_Buffy: "Do you care?" _

_Angel: "She wants to change. She has a chance to..." _

_Buffy: "No. No chance. Jail." _

I'm thinking a little bit more clear now. I know it's wrong to come here looking to beat the hell out of Faith. If it wasn't for Angel standing right there I would still do it though. Still I have to make sure Angel's spontaneous Faith-pity doesn't end up with her getting off the hook for all the things she's done.

_Faith shakily gets up. _

_Angel: "You think that'll help?" _

_Faith: "Buffy... _

_(Buffy whips around to face her) _

_Faith: "I'm sor..." _

_Buffy: "Apologize to me and I will beat you to death." _

Things between us had gone far past the point where they could be fixed with just words. At that point I was just looking for an excuse. I don't know if I would have really beaten Faith to death. But she would have ended up damn near it.

_Faith quietly: "Go ahead." _

She meant it. I could tell. Part of me liked hearing that. Part of me felt sick. But that wouldn't have stopped me.

_Angel steps in front of Faith: "This is not gonna happen." _

_Buffy: "You're gonna stop me? Because you're gonna have to." _

_Faith shakes her head: "Don't - do this." She says weakly. Uncertain. It's unclear who she's talking to._

_Angel: "Faith, go upstairs - now." _

_Buffy: "You think I'm gonna let her out of my sight?" _

_Angel: "Buffy, just back off." _

_Buffy: "There is no way I'm letting her out of my sight." _

_Angel: "Faith, go!"_

Faith does as Angel tells her and runs for the stairs. There was no way I was giving Faith a chance to get away to raise hell another day. Angel grabbed my arm to keep me from stopping Faith. I turn on a dime and my anger finally gets an out. My fist flies and I punch Angel in the face. I cock my arm back, anger getting the better of me and I punch out again. To my complete shock he blocks my second hit and punches me right on the mouth. He apologizes to me as soon as he does and looks contrite but the damage is done. I just stand there with the shock of Angel punching me in the face momentarily overriding everything else. God, what is going on?

_Angel: "She's not gonna run, Buffy." _

_Buffy: "Well, why would she? When she has her brave knight to protect her? - Got you. - Does she cry? - Pouty lips - heaving bosom? - I thought you needed help." _

_Angel: "You think I wanted this to happen? _

_Buffy: "You hit me." _

And that hurt. That Angel would hit me. That Angel would hit me over _Faith_. Nothing makes sense anymore. It's like Faith is poison. Everything that has to do with her turns to shit.

_Angel: "Not to go all schoolyard on you, but you hit me first. In case you've forgotten - you're a little bit stronger than I am." _

_Buffy: "You did it for *her*." _

I'm wondering at this point how Faith could have turned Angel against me. I am so mad at him now. It just doesn't make any sense. Not a damn lick of sense.

_Angel: "You were about three seconds - from making her run - you know that. She's at a crucial stage." _

_Buffy: "She's playing you. She tried to kill you!" _

_Angel: "That was just - that was just a cry for help." _

What the hell is wrong with Angel?

_Buffy: "A cry for help is when you say 'help' in a loud voice." _

_Angel: "I know Faith did some bad things to you." _

_Buffy: "You can't possibly know." _

And he doesn't. He doesn't know. He doesn't know how much having her turn on us, on Xander, Willow, Giles and all of Sunnydale felt. He doesn't know how it feels when the one person who was supposed to understand the sacrifices of the slayer I go through every single day leaves to go join the invincible enemy who wants you dead. Angel doesn't get how painful it was to watch her efforts to reach out be rebuffed again and again. If anyone was supposed to be my ally it was her. Fighting evil. The Chosen Two. But she turned on me. Even after all that I still held out hope for her after she came out of her coma. Then in two days she tore apart my life and left me feeling weaker, more vulnerable and more hurt than I had in a long long time. Angel just can't get how much she's hurt me.

_Angel: "And you can't possibly know what she's going through." _

_Buffy: "And of course, you do? - I'm sorry. I can't be in your club. I never murdered anybody."_

It was a low blow. But I was angry and I wasn't being too careful about what came tumbling out of my mouth. Faith had run upstairs and I ended up lashing out at Angel. It wasn't the last time I would do that on that night.

At that point Wesley comes down the stairs guiding Faith in front of him. The girl seems in a daze. Wesley says that we've got three assassins from the Council moving in on the building to take out Faith. Faith gets her coat. Talk of the special operations team coming spooks Faith and she takes off while Wes and Angel were planning how to deal with the new arrivals. Somehow I get tasked with following Faith to the roof and protecting her. Never in a million years would I have imagined my trip down to L.A. to turn out like this. Protecting Faith on Angel's orders. It makes me wonder just how well I know the new Angel.

I make it to the roof and Faith is just standing there with her back to me. I try to ignore the weakness in her pose, the very image of a crushed and vulnerable human being in her very stance.

_Buffy: "You're __**not**__ gonna run, Faith." _

It's a promise. A threat.

_Faith: "What do you wanna do? You're gonna throw me off the roof -again?" _

_Buffy: "Any reason why I shouldn't?" _

I start walking towards her. Slow. Predatory. The threat of sudden violence is still very much in the air.

_Faith turns to look at Buffy: "There is nothing I can do for you, B. I can't ever make it right." _

'Do you even want to?' I think. 'Have you ever even wanted that before?'

_Buffy: "So you're just going to take off again. Leave us to clean up yet another one of your messes." _

_Faith: "It would make things easier for you." _

_Buffy: "Till you got bored with the whole guilt thing - decided to come back to shake things up?" _

I'm so not sold on the redemption thing at this point. There was no way I could be. Not when I was so angry. Not when I didn't have all the information. I'm still not sure I believe it at all.

_Faith: "That's not gonna happen." _

_Buffy: "You're right. It's not." _

No matter what I'm not going to let her run.

_Faith: "Angel said there was no way you were gonna give me a chance." _

_Buffy: "I gave you every chance! I tried so hard to help you, and you spat on me. My life was just something for you to play with. Angel - Riley - anything that you could take from me - you took. I've lost battles before - but nobody else has -ever- made me a victim." _

It's true, though I'd never thought about it in terms of a victim until it came out of my mouth. There is so much more to that story, why I was and still am so angry at Faith. But it wasn't the time. And I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of seeing any more of just how much she had affected me.

_Faith: "And you can't stand that. You're all about control. You have no idea what it's like on the other side! Where nothing's in control, nothing makes sense! There is just pain and hate and nothing you do means anything. You can't even.." _

_Buffy: "Shut up!" _

I don't know what it was. Maybe how desperate she sounded. The look on her face as she was trying not to shout. The pain that was plain to see. How extremely pale and worn she looked. Maybe it was words she just said that resonated inside of me in a disturbing way. How the words had a ring of truth to them that wasn't so easy to discount or ignore. Whatever it was a crack appeared in my wall of anger and self-righteousness. A doubt and pathetic hope that it might be for real this time.

_Faith: "Just tell me how to make it better."_

Before I could think of anything to say to that all hell broke loose. A man with a machine gun burst onto the roof from the stairs. There was a helicopter. I dragged Faith by the hand and forced her to stay in cover. The girl was so messed up that even her survival instincts were sluggish. Coming from a slayer and from Faith in particular it drove home just what a wreck she was at the time. There was a fight. A chopper and a guy with a big machine gun hanging off it. Angel doing something dangerous and heroic. When everything was over I looked around for Faith. At first I felt panic then crushing disappointment. After that came the mandatory bitter anger. Faith had taken off again. She was gone.

The rest was a whirlwind. It didn't take long for Wes to find out that Angel had been arrested because some hot tip had told the police he was sheltering Faith. It was a nightmare scenario all over again. Angel was in handcuffs. The bitchy detective was gloating about throwing him into a cell that faced the sunrise. I was starting to panic, wondering if I'd have to bust Angel out of a police station to save his life. It was classic Faith all over again. Destroying lives wherever she went then taking off without a care in the world.

But then she was there. Faith had beaten them to the police station. Just sitting there in a chair looking away from us. Faith turned her head to look at us. Her expression was bland, kind of dazed looking and unreadable. She stood up slowly and walked over to the cop who was going to put Angel in a sunny cell.

_Faith: "I'd like to make a confession."_

I gaped. I couldn't believe my ears. I was shocked. It didn't take me long to convince myself that it was some kind of trick. Or that… that maybe she felt she owed Angel and was getting him off the hook before she busted out of prison and went back to her destructive ways. It was hard to reconcile what I was seeing. From 'See. Want. Take.' to confessing to crimes to the police and letting them take her away in handcuffs.

It was too much. Just too much to process. I knew I would be spending a long time sorting this mess out in my own head but now was not the time. There were still things that needed to be said between me and Angel. A little later we got a little privacy in the police station to talk.

_Buffy: "You should have told me what was going on." _

I was pissed. And hurt. It didn't occur to me until much later that maybe those were good reasons for me to let Angel handle things.

_Angel: "I didn't - I didn't think it was your business." _

That pissed me off. It still does. As if there was any universe in which Faith wasn't my business.

_Buffy: "Not my business?" _

_Angel: "I needed more time with Faith. I'm not sure.." _

_Buffy: "You needed - Do you have any - idea what it was like for me to see you with her? That you went behind my back..." _

I did feel very betrayed by Angel then. Siding with Faith against me. Keeping me in the dark when slayer business is _my_ responsibility. Hitting me. And all the while I had come down to try and protect him. It hurt a lot then. Still hurts a little bit now even after I've had time to cool down and tried to see things from his perspective.

_Angel: "Buffy, this wasn't about you! This was about saving somebody's soul. That's what I do here, and you're not a part of it. - That was your idea, remember? We stay away from each other." _

_Buffy: "I came here because you were in danger." _

_Angel: "I'm in danger every day. You came because of Faith. You were looking for vengeance." _

_Buffy: "I have a right to it." _

There it was. It was more honest than I intended but I wasn't for a second going to take it back. I didn't care if it made me sound petty or cheap or unjustified. Even if I hadn't had the time to sort out what was going on with Faith she had still wronged me, still gone too far. The most recent wounds stood out the most. Sleeping with Riley, stealing my body, hurting my mom, turning Angel against me. I wasn't sure what was going on with Faith. But if I felt like I still needed to hurt her no one had a right to stand in my way.

_Angel: "Not in my city." _

Angel said it so firmly. So strongly, making it clear there would be no arguing and he would not bend on that point. The way he said it also stole the indignation from my sails. He had the moral high ground here and I… I couldn't deny it. Because it was true. Angel was being the bigger man, the better person. And he had never spoken to me like that before. It made me feel shitty. I couldn't argue now that I had a right to hurt Faith. Not like this. So I lashed out at my most convenient target, the other person I was really mad at because of tonight.

_Buffy turns away for a moment then turns back. _

_Buffy: "I have someone in my life now. (Angel looks away from her but otherwise doesn't move) That I love. (Angel swallows hard) It's not what you and I had. - It's very new. (She steps closer) You know what makes it new? - I trust him. - I know him." _

Angel hadn't even know I'd met someone new at that point. It was petty. It was a low blow. It was something meant to intentionally hurt Angel. Parts of what I said weren't even true. I regretted saying it as soon as I was out of sight of him and started to cool off a little bit. I've thought about calling and apologizing but I've been a wuss and it doesn't seem quite enough to make up for it.

_Angel lets out a sharp breath: "That's great. - It's nice - you moved on. - I can't. You found someone new. - I'm not allowed to, remember? I see you again it cuts me up inside and the person I share that with is me! You don't know me anymore. So don't come down here with your great new life and *expect* me to do things your way. - Go home!" _

It hurt. This whole day was just one big ugly pile of hurt piled on more hurt. Looking back I don't blame him for reacting like this. You could say I had it coming given a lot of my behavior that day. But I still love Angel. Part of me always will. Him telling me to go away and get out of "his" city was not an easy thing to hear.

_Buffy looks at him for a moment then goes to pick up her jacket, while Angel walks over to the wall and braces his hands against it. _

_Buffy: "See? - Faith wins again." _

I'm not even sure what I meant by that. Truth is I was hoping one more shot would hurt him. That was a real black day for me. A record low in the "is Buffy a good person?" scorecard.

_Angel without looking at her: "Go." _

_Buffy goes._

000

Looking back on that night Buffy felt a lot of confusion and regret still. Giles had talked to Wesley soon after she had returned to Sunnydale and filled in most of the blanks of what had been going on in L.A. with Faith before she walked in to see that stupid hug. She wasn't sure if the story made her feel better or worse about the whole Faith situation.

She had been even more unstable and dangerous after waking up from her coma. The reckless nights of drinking, violence and muggings in L.A. that were way too brazen and over the top even for Faith. Giles told her about how Faith had attacked Angel several times and kept trying to goad him into violence. Then how she had kidnapped and viciously tortured Wes. Part of Buffy couldn't even wrap her brain around that. Faith had threatened to torture people before. But never before had she actually gone through with it. It was simply horrifying.

Then Angel had found out where Faith was keeping Wes and had come to the rescue. Faith held a knife to Wesley's throat and tried to make Angel even more angry before they started fighting. The way Wes described it Faith was giving Angel a sound beating before they had both gone out a second story window. Wes had gotten himself free and caught the tail end of the fight between Faith and Angel in the alley. Apparently Faith was going on about how she was truly evil and bad while trying to get Angel to fight her. Angel had refused to fight and instead just talked to Faith while taking a beating. When it was clear that Angel wasn't going to fight Faith had started pleading with him and crying. Pleading with him to kill her. She broke down and fell to her knees. Angel had hugged her then, comforted her in the rain. That's when Angel took her back to his apartment.

Buffy didn't know what to believe. They had been played by Faith before. She had the sinking feeling that it was another trick. Another lie of Faith's to get under people's skins. Buffy had tried to reach out, to open up, to give the other girl another chance and been proven wrong too many times to take this at face value. She couldn't trust anything Faith said or did.

And yet after a couple of days of fuming anger Buffy realized things weren't as black and white as that. There _had_ been some signs that Faith wasn't the two dimensional incarnation of evil and anger Buffy wanted to see her as. With everything that had been going on and the anger and hurt she had been feeling Buffy hadn't really thought about those until now.

First it was the dream she had shared with Faith the day before the girl woke from her coma. Buffy hadn't thought about it because she thought it was just a random regular dream. Looking back on it though it clearly had been a shared dream with Faith. She and Faith were making a bed. At the time Buffy didn't remember all the bad things that had gone on between them. They had talked, small talk and some cryptic slayer dream things. Faith looked at ease. Relaxed. They smiled at each other. For a minute it felt like they were back on the same side again. Friends again. It surprised her just how happy and relieved she felt at that, how a massive weight she had not even realized was crushing her chest had been pulled away.

Then there was the blood dripping on the sheets. Buffy looked down and saw her hand holding the same knife she had used to stab Faith last year in the girl's gut yet again. Faith asked her _'are you ever going to take that out?'_. That was the last Buffy remembered of that dream before waking up.

In hindsight that dream was one reason why she had been hopeful and concerned when she heard Faith had woken up from her coma. That hope had turned to disappointment and horror when Faith wasted no time getting back to her old ways with renewed gleeful intensity.

Yet part of Buffy felt that the dream still represented some sort possibility. Some possible way of how things might be. Or might have been. She wasn't sure. She had never been very good at figuring out slayer dreams. But Buffy knew that at the very least it meant that such a thing had at one point been possible between them. It was somewhat more bitter than sweet.

Buffy remembered the last dream they shared over eight months ago after Buffy had first put Faith in a coma. Faith had helped her out then, giving her the clue she needed to defeat the Mayor. Again in hindsight that was another reason for her to hope Faith would be on their side when she woke up. Again why she had been so disappointed when it had all started up again.

The second recent thing that put a damper in the 'Faith is as evil as any demon' train of her thoughts was the last things the other girl had done while still wearing Buffy's body. She came back to help those people trapped in a church by vampires that had been shown on TV. By looking in her pockets and finding the ticket later Buffy realized that Faith had missed her flight to Mexico to come help those people in the church. It was so out of character for Faith. She had stuck her neck out and messed up her own plans for escape to come help people. Buffy still didn't know what to make of that.

Buffy wearing Faith's body had come in at the last second and staked the final vamp. Faith had freaked and tried to run. What came next was the most surreal fight in Buffy's life. They had struggled and fought ending up rolling around on the ground next to the altar. Buffy seeing her own face looking at her in anger and desperation and hate and disgust was something that would probably end up haunting her for a long time.

Then Faith got the advantage and ended up straddling her on the floor.

000

**That Day at the Church**

"You can't win this." I told her.

Faith loses it. She starts pummeling me, viciously punching me in the face.

"Shut up! You think I'm afraid of you? You're nothing!"

She kept punching me, getting more and more agitated, losing control.

"You're disgusting! A useless, murderous bitch! You're nothing!"

She's crying at this point, fat hot tears running down her face. My vision starts to darken as she hits me in the head over and over again. I reached in my pocket and grabbed the magic stone Willow says will switch us back. I grab for her hand and press the stone between us. There is a bright light and I feel a strange sensation going up and down my body. Next thing I know I realize I'm in my own body again with Faith splayed out underneath me.

Faith pushed me off her and I let her, too tired and confused to do anything else. The look on her face is horrified as she runs out of the church. I lay against the altar and watch her go, unsure of what to think.

000

Buffy had not needed to consult her psychology textbooks to figure out that Faith had been talking about herself, hitting herself, hating herself. A few days of mulling all these things over and they were starting to paint a different picture of Faith. Maybe a very different picture than what she had thought when she had gone down to Los Angeles. But Buffy wasn't ready to go there. Not yet. She was still too angry at Faith, too hurt by what she had done. Still somewhat angry at Angel even though she realized she had in large part been in the wrong. Still angry that Faith coming between them may have damaged her delicate relationship with Angel.

Maybe one day she could forgive Faith. But they would never be friends. And Buffy would never really trust her. Not really. Not in the way Buffy had hoped they would come to trust each other before it all went to shit with the Mayor. That ship had sailed. It was heartbreaking.

Buffy had a lot of regrets in her life. How things had played out with Faith would always be one of her biggest.

As Buffy went over this in her head a great deal of the anger she had been carrying around since she had gotten back from L.A. and even before then began to slip away only to be replaced by weariness. It seemed that now that she had more or less sorted out and processed what had been going on, figured out what it meant and have it make sense, she could finally let some of that immediate anger go.

Faith… was a damaged person. Upon reflection Buffy could now accept that the girl had hit rock bottom and was making an attempt at redemption. There were actually a few good human qualities underneath all the anger and crazy. If the dark slayer actually stayed on 'the path of redemption' as Angel called it or not remained to be seen. Buffy hoped she would.

It didn't change anything though. She had still done all the things she had done. Buffy didn't forgive her for that. If she proved herself to one day be truly a different person then maybe Buffy would be able to forgive. But not now, not for a long time. And the trust was gone forever.

Buffy pushed aside the pain of the friendship she had hoped to have and squared her shoulders and held her head high. The slayer let a few tears fall and then wiped her face, forcing herself to stop. Faith was out of her life and was going to be in prison for a long time. Angel said that he would help her stay on the path even behind bars and Buffy trusted Angel enough to feel sure he would keep her on the straight and narrow as well as anyone could. It was time to put aside that dark chapter of her life and focus on what was in front of her right now.

Faith had gone too far and was gone for good now. She needed to think about Riley. He had been so good to her and since the whole Faith body switch debacle and her moodiness since the trip to L.A. things had been strained between them. She hadn't even told him the whole story about Faith or much of what had happened in L.A. except for a heavily edited outline. Buffy knew he had picked up on her mood and short terse answers since she had gotten back and that he was nervous and worried. The blonde knew he must be wondering if something had happened between her and Angel. Buffy decided to go see Riley as soon as possible tomorrow to put his mind at ease and make it up to him.

Even though Buffy had lied to Angel by telling him she loved Riley the truth was she still really cared about him. Buffy needed some kind of rock to lean on and a mostly normal, kind, great guy like him was just exactly the sort of thing she needed. It didn't hurt that he was in the know and could fight demons as well. There was no reason why she wouldn't fall madly in love with him given time.

Decision made, Buffy decided to finish her sweep of Restfield and then head back to her dorm. It was almost at the end of her sweep when she noticed a large shape hidden in the shadows.

Buffy approached cautiously trying to get a better look. The demon stepped out of the shadows to challenge her. It looked like a mix between a bull and a sabertooth tiger on four legs. It had dull silver spotty hair in lumps over most of its body. Its bull like horns and large walrus-like fangs glistened with some kind of thick disgusting liquid covering them. Long nasty looking claws protruded from it's limbs.

"Ew, you're a nasty looking one. Don't think you'll be in the running for Sunnydale's most eligible demon," quipped Buffy while she drew a stake and sized up her opponent. The thing was the size of a large bull and that was extremely rare. Most demons are bipedal and aren't too much larger than a man. It probably meant it was a lot stronger than most demons. Buffy found herself wishing she'd brought an axe. Or a cannon.

The creature roared with a low pitched sound and charged the slayer. It was fast and Buffy didn't want to get anywhere near it's front that was full of pointy sharp things. The slayer waited until the last moment then jumped high in the air clear over the demon. Buffy took off at a run as the demon turned around and chased close behind.

_I hope you're as dumb as you are ugly_ thought Buffy.

The slayer ran straight towards a large mausoleum and jumped high to land on top of it. The demon didn't have time to change direction and it crashed into the wall of the mausoleum. Buffy felt the wall of the small building crack and give. From below the demon roared in anger and pain with a low rumble that she felt in her bones. The slayer hoped hitting its head like that would stun it for a least a second or two.

Buffy jumped down onto it's back and jammed her stake into it's neck hoping to sever the spinal cord. The stake glanced off the bone and ended up imbedded deep in the demon's neck. The creature roared and bucked with surprising strength. Buffy went flying and landed badly while clipping her head on a tombstone. The blow to the head disoriented her and Buffy tried clumsily to get to her feet.

The demon charged and was on her before she could steady her feet under her. It went to gore her with it's horns so Buffy did the only thing she could think of and grabbed on to both of the large bull horns sticking out of it's head. She managed to keep it's slobbering fetid mouth from biting her but the demon kept moving forward and she was dragged along with it. It kept trying to bite her while running straight ahead reminding Buffy of a donkey chasing a carrot on a stick. Buffy knew she needed to do something before the demon rammed them both into something hard.

Hoping it wouldn't hurt too much Buffy let go of the horns and rolled under the demon. She pulled out her last stake and slammed it into the demon's gut right before the charging beast stepped painfully on her chest as it ran by.

As soon as the weight was off her chest Buffy moved to get on her feet. But the demon was faster and in a blink it had turned around and slammed her with a clawed paw back onto the ground. She felt it's long claws cut deeply into her flesh. The creature's head came down to bite her and the only thing Buffy could do was get her arm in the way.

The creature bit down on her arm and Buffy had to stifle back a scream as she felt teeth grate against bone. Knowing what was coming next Buffy quickly wrapped her legs around the demon's thick neck to protect herself. Right on cue the demon started to shake her like a terrier with a rat trying to do as much damage as it could while it bit down on her arm, Buffy hanging on for dear life so she wouldn't get her arm ripped off.

In desperation Buffy used her free hand to grope around the demon's neck. She felt the handle of the stake she had stabbed in to it's neck and pulled it out with a wet squelching sound. The slayer brought the stake down and slammed it into one of the demon's eyes.

The creature opened it's mouth and roared in pain. Buffy pulled her mangled arm out of it's mouth and adjusted the grip on her stake. While the demon was still howling in pain she brought the stake upwards and slammed it into it's throat.

Buffy began to backpedal as the creature made to go after her again. It made it a few steps after her until it began to slow down and wheeze horribly. A few moments later it collapsed on a heap on the ground slowly dying from the injury to it's throat.

Buffy breathed a sigh of relief at having managed to kill the demon. She had no idea what it was but it was something she'd never seen before and it was _extremely_ dangerous. She hated to think what would have happened if it had been Riley or one of the scoobs who ran into that thing. The slayer would not have placed bets on anyone but her coming out on top of that fight.

Still keeping an eye on the wheezing, dying demon to make sure it didn't make a last minute recovery Buffy gingerly looked at her arm. It was nasty looking, lots of blood and lots of mangled meat. It didn't hurt much right now but she knew in a few minutes that would all change once the adrenaline wore off. The cuts on her chest were deep and bled freely but were not immediately life threatening. Cursing at having another jacket ruined she awkwardly took hers off and ripped one of the sleeves off to make a bandage for her arm. It was crude and ugly and any medic would have a fit if they saw it but she needed to do what she could about the bleeding until she could get somewhere safe and get help patching herself up.

Since the demon looked like it had breathed it's last once she was done she gingerly walked over to it and retrieved one of her stakes. From where she was she figured Giles' place was by far the closest. She made her way in that direction hoping nothing else would jump her while she was mangled and losing blood.

000

Buffy knew something was wrong by the time she made it to Giles's place. Her hands were shaking and she felt hot. Buffy knocked on the door hard not trusting that her shaking hands would be able to work her keys into the lock.

A minute later a bleary looking Giles in a robe opened the door. "My goodness Buffy it's late. Is everything allri…" he trailed off as he got his first decent look at her in the dim light. She saw him take in the ugly cuts on her chest and the blood soaked bandage covering her arm.

"My word! Buffy come in, come in quickly," He said with worry clear in his voice. She gratefully let him put his arm around her and lead her inside.

"What happened?" asked Giles as he helped her to sit on the couch.

"A demon. Four legged prehistoric bull-looking type thing. I got it but not before it did a number on my arm." Buffy had started to shiver now. A minute ago she had been feeling too hot and now she was shivering. Weird.

Giles was already off getting the large well stocked medical kit he kept in his bathroom. Buffy closed her eyes as she felt oddly disjointed from her body. When Giles came back she tried to sit up straight.

"Come on dear, let me look at your arm," he said as he sat on the table in front of her and took her arm for him to examine.

He pulled off the makeshift bandage and Buffy saw him swallow when he saw her arm. She looked down at it. In all fairness it looked a lot worse here in the light than it had in the darkness of the cemetery. The meat over much of her forearm was torn and jagged and ugly as heck. It wasn't quite as bad as hamburger but it wasn't a great deal better either. At least with slayer healing the bleeding had already stopped for the most part.

"Buffy, I really think we should…"

"No Giles. I'm not going to the hospital. A week max and my arm will be as good as new. Just patch me up and I'll take a few days off from slaying while it heals. No biggie."

Giles didn't look happy about it but nodded and started to disinfect the wound. It stung but her arm was already feeling numb and tingly. Buffy didn't know why but suddenly her thoughts were becoming sluggish and harder to put together.

Buffy remembered what she had been thinking when she had gotten to the door. That something was wrong. How had she forgotten that?

"Giles…" Buffy began, her voice weak and thready.

"Yes?" asked Giles while he concentrated on bandaging up her arm as best she could.

She suddenly began to feel incredibly hot. Her limbs started shaking. Thoughts were becoming harder and harder to form in her head.

"Giles I think something's wrong," she managed to croak out.

Buffy blacked out, for how long she didn't know but it couldn't have been more than a few moments. She opened her eyes to find a scared looking Giles standing over her, talking to her. She couldn't make out what he was saying. The slayer began shivering and shaking until it all went black again.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I always thought that Riley setting up in the ruins of Sunnydale high after leaving the initiative was kind of silly. Maybe it _was_ the best choice to hide from the government. But in this story he's going to be staying somewhere else.

Also I feel that this chapter is where the story really begins. The previous chapter was important to set things up for the rest of the story. But most of it was showing Buffy's thoughts and thought process through the whole debacle after Faith woke up from her coma.

IMO my version of what was going on in Buffy's head during that whole ordeal is totally consistent with canon and with Buffy's character. If it wasn't for my new 'curveball' things would have gone on exactly as they had in the canon after that point. Please let me know if you ever think any characters are acting OOC (and most importantly why). I'd like to try very hard to keep everyone in character.

Also I know there are a lot of Riley Finn haters out there. I myself am not a big fan but he will be sticking around the story for a while. Just know that eventually he'll make his exit just as he does in the canon.

0000

It was nearly four in the morning when Willow burst into Giles' apartment. She had never gotten that fast from her dorm to his place in her life. He was sitting at the table, a stack of books already on the table in front of him. The former librarian looked tired and worried. He looked up at her as she came in.

"Oh, Willow I'm glad you're here. I believe we need to move quickly if we are to help Buffy," said Giles. Her saw Willow looking around worriedly and guessed at what she was thinking. "I've put Buffy up in my bed upstairs. I thought it would be for the best."

Willow nodded and moved towards Giles. He had gone back to intently read through the book in front of him. When it didn't look like he was going to say anything else Willow cleared her throat politely.

"So, don't keep me in suspense Giles. What happened to Buffy? How is she?" Willow asked unable to keep the worry from her voice. All she had gotten from Giles on the phone was that Buffy was hurt and that he needed them to come over and help him research right away.

Giles had the decency to look embarrassed before turning to look at her. "Right, right sorry Willow. Buffy came to my door about forty five minutes ago after having been wounded by a demon while she was on patrol. Her physical injuries were severe but nothing life threatening to her. While I was in the process of tending to her wounds she collapsed and lost consciousness. I took her upstairs. When last I checked on her a few minutes ago she was still unconscious but very hot to the touch and she was shaking all over. I've put ice packs on her to try to do something about the high temperature. However the only explanation I can think of is that the demon she fought is somehow responsible for this. We have to figure out what it was so we can… so we know what we're dealing with."

Willow could tell by the stained look on Giles's face that it was bad. The redheaded witch felt a tight painful knot form in her stomach. Buffy was under the influence of some unknown demon poison or curse. For all they knew she wouldn't last another hour. For all they knew she could already be…

The though suddenly horrifying Willow she dropped her bag and ran upstairs. She took the stairs two at a time until she reached upstairs and ran through the open door.

She looked down at the girl and to her relief her friend was very much still alive. Willow moved to sit on the bed next to Buffy. The girl ran her hand tenderly down her best friend's face. She was surprised by how hot the other girl felt. It was like she had the mother of all fevers. Willow didn't even want to guess what her temperature must be.

Looking at Buffy she noticed the girl still had her dirty clothes from slaying. They were all covered in dirt and blood. If her friend was here for a while Willow would have to see about getting her into some clean clothes and getting her cleaned up.

Willow noticed Buffy's arms and legs were trembling slightly. Her face was pale and drawn and looked pained. It made Willow feel awful to see her bestie like this. She had to control the urge to cry.

"Crying won't help," said Willow softly out loud. "Don't worry Buffy. We're here for you. We'll find a way to fix this. We always do," said Willow to her friend. There was no reaction. Not even a flicker of recognition.

"I'll be back soon Buffy. I need to go help Giles figure out how to help you. But we'll figure it out soon, I promise," said Willow. She grabbed her friend's hand and gave it what she hoped was a reassuring squeeze. Then she stood up and headed back downstairs.

Before she was all the way down the stairs Giles was already speaking to her.

"Willow, I've asked Xander and Anya to go look for the demon that did this. Buffy said she killed it so they should be able to find it's corpse. If they can take a photograph of it it could considerably cut down on the time we spend trying to identify the creature."

"But Giles, I thought most demons begin to rapidly decompose minutes after they are killed. How do you know they'll find anything that's recognizable?"

"In most cases yes. But Buffy described to me a large four legged demon. Those types generally take longer before the rapid decomposition begins, sometimes over eight hours."

"Oh."

"I tried to get in touch with Riley to help Xander and Anya look for the demon. Could you try again to get in touch with him? No one picked up when I rang earlier."

"Oh. Sure. I'll get right on that."

Riley had just left the initiative and was laying low until things blew over or they could be sort things out with the government so they wouldn't come looking for him anymore. For now he was staying at a crappy motel under a fake name. Funny enough he was staying on the first floor of the same motel Faith had stayed in last year.

Willow picked up the phone and dialed Riley's room number. She let it ring for about ten times before giving up and putting the phone back on the hook. The redhead sighed in frustration.

"Just when we need you, can't find you," muttered Willow.

"Any luck?" asked Giles from where he was intensely tackling yet another new book.

"No, he must not be at the motel," said Willow. After thinking it over for a minute Willow decided they needed all hands on deck for this.

"I'm going to call Tara and ask her to come over and help us," said Willow.

"Oh yes yes. Yes good idea. After you're done come help me look for any four legged demons known to use poisons or magic. There shouldn't be that many of them but trying to find them all in here," he motioned to the impressive stack of books on the table, "I'm afraid is going to be rather labor intensive."

"Right. Let me just make that call."

Willow picked up the phone again and dialed the number for Tara's dorm. After three or four rings a sleepy voice picked up on the other line.

"Umm… Hello?" asked Tara still not fully awake.

"Hey baby. It's me," said Willow. Despite the situation she couldn't keep the tenderness from her voice.

"Willow? Hey. H-how is everything? Is Buffy allright?" Willow had told her what was going on before she left.

Willow shook her head, even though it was silly since she was on the phone. "No she's not allright. She got hit by some kind of demon whammy. It's not looking too good right now. We're in full research mode."

"D-do you need me to come over? Is there anything I can do?"

A smile crept on to Willow's face. "You're such a good person Tara. I was going to ask you to come over but now I don't have to since you already offered. I did feel kinda bad about having to ask you to do this at four in the morning."

"O-of course I'm coming over. You don't even have to ask. Do you need me to bring a-anything?"

Willow thought about it for a minute. Maybe magic would be helpful in this situation. She and Tara didn't really have a better selection of spellbooks than Giles had but they had a lot of ingredients the former Watcher didn't keep on hand. The problem was that she had no idea what they would need.

"Pack a big bag of ingredients and tools and stuff. I'm not even sure that we'll have to work any magic but it helps to have our bases covered. We might be able to do something for Buffy too while we figure out how to cure whatever it is she's got."

"Ok.I-I'll be over as soon as I can."

"Thanks Tara. See you soon."

Willow hung up the phone.

"She'll be over soon," said Willow as she walked over and took a seat on the table.

"Right. Thank you Willow, anyone we can get would be a big help. Let's start looking for this demon shall we? Bookmark anything you find that looks like a candidate for the demon we're looking for," said Giles. He's usually not that pushy to get people started on the research but Willow could tell he was really worried. The witch dutifully picked up a book and started reading.

Over the next hour the two of them dug in to the stack of books reading as fast as they could. Giles only stopped a few times to briefly go check on Buffy. The books were all of Giles's grimoires on various demon species. There were so many of them. The problem was that very few of the books were arranged in any way that made what they were looking for easier to find. Most were arranged by alphabetical name of the demons which is completely useless if you're just looking for a four legged magic or poison demon. Others were arranged by different classes of demons. However no one thought to make 'four legged' a demon class. Instead they were classified mostly by what hell dimension they were known or speculated to originate from. Willow would kill to have these books on a computer so she could just do a search for certain keywords. As it was the research was painfully slow going knowing that Buffy's life was probably on the line.

After closing her second book in frustration she had found a total of five four-legged demons. Four of them didn't have any poison or magic and one of them could curse you with dangerously bad luck. Nothing so far that gave them a clue how to help Buffy or what the beastie that attacked her had been.

The front door opened and Xander, Anya and Tara walked in.

"Hey guys," said Willow trying to give them a genuine smile, "how's it going? Did you manage to find the demon?"

"Sure did," said Xander with a self-satisfied smile. "Took enough pictures of it to give it it's own swimsuit calendar. Only for demons. And, you know, without the swimsuits."

Suddenly Xander had everyone's attention as he reached into his pocket and took out a decent stack of polaroids. He walked over to Willow and gave her the stack.

She looked down at the top picture and got a good look at the demon. It had big bull horns and walrus like large teeth on it's large head. Ugly silver fur clumped in places all over it's body. Sharp claws on it's limbs. It was also huge and chorded everywhere with muscle. It was like a nightmare cross between a bull and a large cat.

Before she could take a look at the second photograph the pictures were snatched out of her hands. She looked over to see Giles looking at them intently. That's right, she could oogle the new beastie _after_ they figured out what the heck it was. If anyone could identify it from the photographs it was Giles.

As Giles intently examined the pictures Xander walked over to her.

"Hey, so how's the Buffster doing?" asked Xander.

Willow shook her head. "Not great. She's hanging in there though. Hopefully we'll get some answers now."

"Ok, right then," she heard Giles say. He starting moving quickly and began to separate books in to two different piles. "This demon shouldn't be here. It looks like the sort of demon who stays strictly in arctic climates. You can tell by the fur and the creature's general musculature and body shape. Those sorts of demons begin to experience health problems if they stay in warmer climates for too long," Giles seemed troubled by this new information.

In short order Giles had gone through their remaining pile of about thirty books and separated ten from the rest. "There won't be any reference to demons from extreme cold climates in those other books. The one we are looking for has to be in one of these," said Giles pointing at their much more manageable stack of ten books.

"Right. Well let's get looking. Fast reading research more activated," said Xander. He looked anxious as he sat down and pulled a book from the pile.

Willow got her own book from the stack and pulled it open. With a few soft words Willow sent Tara to go upstairs and check on Buffy.

After another twenty minutes of research something occurred to Willow. "Hey, since when are there cold weather demons? I thought all hell dimensions were well… hot?"

Anya snorted in derisive way but didn't say anything. It was Giles who answered. "Actually demon dimensions come in all sorts of climates. Many of the ones that have contact with our world happen to be extremely hot but by no means all of them. Other cultures speak of hell as being a place of extreme cold instead of extreme heat. In fact it is believed a particularly powerful demon from a cold demon dimension is what brought about the last ice age."

That was a really scary thought. It seemed the threat of a demon apocalypse _had_ happened at least once back in the day.

"Oh. Oh. I hate to break it to you guys but you better start making funeral arrangements. Buffy is definitely going to die from that poison."

Every head snapped to look at Anya. Everyone's face was showing some form of horror, anger or disbelief.

Anya looked perplexed when she saw the looks she was getting. "What? It's true. It's right here in the book. I mean, sorry. But don't look at me like I'm crazy. I know how to read."

"Give me that," said Giles brusque manner as he snatched Anya's book from her. Willow had never seen Giles handle one of his books in such a rough way before. The former vengeance demon looked miffed.

Willow looked at Giles anxiously while the man read from the entry Anya had found. The witch saw his eyes draw together in a painful looking frown. Then Willow saw all the blood drain from his face.

"Giles?" asked Willow trying her hardest to stay calm, "What does it say?"

Giles took off his glasses, hands shaking. Without a word he handed Willow the book.

Willow takes the book and starts to look at the entry. The first thing she notices is a small but detailed image of the demon in question. It seems to be without a doubt the one that Xander took the photographs of. The witch then began to read what it said.

_ This particular breed of Daemon is known as a Fjord Daemon, so called because they are most often found in the frozen fjords of Scandinavian europa, Greenland and Iceland. However they seem to thrive wherever a mixture of mountains, water and frozen temperatures come together for long stretches throughout the year._

_ They are an ancient breed known to be exceedingly powerful and dangerous. Fortunately it's intelligence is believed to be no greater than your average beast and it's numbers on this dimension have always been very small. It is entirely possible this Daemon is the equivalent of a wolf or a lion in it's home dimension and somehow a number of them have found a way to our plane. It is possible they have interbred with local wildlife but at this point this author has no conclusive information on the subject._

_ This creature possesses superior strength and ferocity greater than most Daemons in this dimension leading me to believe it is closer to a true Daemon than the average Daemon found on earth. What makes this creature truly dangerous however is the poison that coats it's mouth and horns. One scratch and the victim is affected. The poison it produces has some unique properties. It causes the victim to lose consciousness and produces a fever far hotter than people would be able to produce under normal circumstances. I've come across some accounts of victims that say they experience problems with thoughts and thinking before losing consciousness. The involuntary shaking of the limbs is also reported as a common symptom. _

_ What makes the poison unique it's its intractability and resistance to all attempts made to cure it. Herbs and remedies of a medical nature are not effective because the poison attacks the fundamental essence of the victim, not just the body. No combination ever tried has been known to effective. Attempts to cure or remove the poison with magicks have been even less successful. Once it takes hold and binds to the essence of its victim the poison cannot be safely removed. Experimentation has shown that if the poison 'senses' it is being removed from the fundamental essence of it's victim it will essentially self-destruct leading the death of the person in question. Scandinavian covens have tried for centuries to find a way around this problem but to my knowledge none have been successful. _

_ Once the poison takes hold the victim's temperature will slowly increase inevitably leading to death after no less than two and no more than three days. Attempts to keep the body temperature lowered artificially have met with some limited success. In one particular case I've come across the victim was lowered into an icy lake to attempt to keep the temperature from killing him. That person lasted a total of five days before the poison fever claimed him. _

_ In my extensive research on the subject no-one has ever survived the bite of a Fjord Daemon. Thus it is my recommendation they be avoided at all costs or if one must kill it to find a way to do so from a distance. Thankfully they are rare and prefer the frozen wastelands of the world to the lands of civilized man so the risk of accidentally encountering one are low._

That was it. That was all it said. It was so much information and at the same time not enough. Willow's mind was numb as she heard Xander saying something to her. She absently handed him the book, her mind some weird mix of having shut down and going furiously over the information she had just learned.

What were they going to do?

_How were they going to save Buffy?_

000

Thirty minutes later everyone had read the entry for themselves. The mood was somber and quiet and no one had said anything for at least ten minutes. The only break in the silence was when Giles went to the kitchen to get himself a glass and a bottle of scotch. Xander got himself a mug and served himself a healthy dose from the bottle as well. No one felt like telling him not to because he was still technically a minor. Willow thought they all probably could use a drink.

Surprisingly it was Tara who broke the silence. "I-I have an idea that m-might help."

All eyes turned to her and Tara had to fight not to squirm under the attention. The girl looked at Willow who gave her a reassuring look before she continued.

"R-recently I read about a stasis spell. We c-could cast that on Buffy. It should buy us more time to work with w-while we figure out how to fix her."

"Really?" asked Giles, starting to come of his daze for the first time since he had read the entry on the Fjord demon. "How much time do you think exactly?"

"From what I've read if m-me and Willow do it right at the m-most it will slow time inside the spell to about one seventh the speed. S-so I guess it would make two to three days into two to three weeks. A-as long as we can maintain the spell, of course. And since we are not trying to remove the poison it should be safe."

"Yes, yes…" said Giles thoughtfully, "Yes that might work. Do you have the ingredients you need to make it work? If we're going to do this I think it would be advisable to do so as soon as possible." Giles was starting to get out of his funk and get animated again. His renewed energy seemed to help everyone start to snap out of their gloominess and back to action.

"I'll call Joyce and let her know what's going on. See about getting her to bring some of Buffy's stuff over," said Xander jumping up to do just that.

"Yes," said Tara in reply to Giles, "I believe w-we have everything we need. I know I-I've seen the book with the spell here before. I-It's not too much harder than the other things Willow and I have done. It will just d-drain us a lot and one of us will have to keep almost constant watch over it so it doesn't give out. T-that's the major drawback t-to the spell."

"Right. Well, please get to it as soon as possible. We do badly need the extra time to figure out our next course of action. I'll start looking for anything that might help counteract the poison. Though the author of that particular volume is considered extremely reliable it is quite possible that he missed something. I imagine we will have some long research days ahead of us," said Giles. He began to pick up his stack of demon bestiaries to return to their rightful place and began pulling even more books to begin looking for a solution to the Fjord poison.

Willow felt Tara's hand slip in to hers. "Come on," her girlfriend said gently, "let's go get s-set up for the spell."

The redhead let Tara guide her up the stairs. Willow only hoped they would find something soon.

000

**Eleven Days Later**

Willow was exhausted and she was growing desperate. No actually, on second thought she had reached the state of desperate a couple of days ago. Now she was just barely holding it together at the seams. If it had not been for Tara's constant rock steady support and comfort Willow thought she would have flown to pieces by now.

It had been an exhausting eleven days for the two witches. One of them needed to be constantly up and monitoring the stasis spell around Buffy in order to keep it intact. It would at random times begin to destabilize and would collapse in a matter of minutes if one of the witches wasn't there to bring it back into alignment. Willow was of course thankful for the spell but at times wanted to curse whoever had designed it for leaving such a glaring problem inherent in the spellwork.

The rest of the gang was a mess as well. Joyce was in there almost constantly being the one who changed Buffy, gave her sponge baths and kept her clean. Having her get close to Buffy to do even that was a huge strain on the spell. The elder Summers had at first been very unhappy that she could not sit close to her daughter. Now she sat outside the large magic circle surrounding Giles's bed whenever she was off work, going home only to change and sleep. The weariness and exhaustion were clearly etched on her face.

Riley had been a source of annoyance to many of the others. He was around almost constantly and had taking to pacing worriedly and angrily in Giles's bedroom outside the ring of the spell circle in the beginning. After a few days it had been so distracting and uncomfortable for Willow and Tara that they had effectively banned him from the room. The guy was genuinely worried about Buffy and seemed even more upset than Joyce that he couldn't sit by her bedside. After that he had paced downstairs and helped with the research though he seemed too wound up to concentrate on it too well. A few days ago he'd taken off saying he would find out if some old contacts had anything that might be useful. Willow was glad to see him go. He was a nice guy but he had not been handling the situation very well.

Giles had been obsessive in his research, sleeping only a few fitful hours a night on the couch or a chair before diving back into his books. He'd only taken breaks from his research to make phone calls to friends and colleagues around the world trying to find any useful information. Willow was sure it had been at least a day since the man had eaten anything. He looked to have aged ten years in less than two weeks. Still no one had been able to convince him to slow down and get a good night's rest. Willow couldn't blame him. Even the few times she had gone back to her dorm to try and get some rest Willow had only managed a few fitful hours of sleep at a time.

Xander had done his best to try to keep people's spirits up and to at least to some degree he did a pretty good job. People weren't laughing out loud but with his antics he could at least diffuse some of the heavy foreboding atmosphere that kept settling over Giles's apartment more and more as time went on. He also made sure people had food and ate and took care of all the little things that needed doing like shopping and doing errands. Whenever he wasn't doing any of those things he was right there with Giles researching. Anya split her time helping Xander with whatever he was doing and doing research. The two of them had really been holding it together and trying to keep a positive and upbeat attitude. It was times like this with goofy Xander that Willow realized just why they all loved him so much.

Buffy had steadily gotten worse. Ever so slowly her temperature had been climbing. It was now at about a hundred and fifty degrees. Having a fever that high would have killed anyone and should have killed Buffy. Something about the poison allowed the body to get that hot and somehow not completely ruin everything inside right away. There had been some concern about that so they had done a diagnostic spell to figure it out. At least in a bit of good news Buffy's brain wasn't frying in her head yet. But eventually the temperature would get hot enough to kill her.

But so far after eleven days they had learned nothing. Or you could say they had learned plenty, but none of it useful for helping Buffy. Fjord demon poison only was effective for a few hours after removing it from the demon. The poison supposedly worked the way it did with the increased temperature because the Fjord demon could easily sense heat in cold weather and could more easily track down fleeing prey for dinner. They had even found the exact dimension the Fjord demon came from. But nothing about how to counteract the poison. Everywhere they looked and everyone they asked said the same thing: _there is no cure for Fjord demon poison._

Willow had grown desperate, so she had started to consider doing things she never in a million years would have contemplated before. Two days ago she had started looking into the demons that live in Crushing Ice, the liberal translation into English of the dimension the Fjord came from. No one on this side seemed to know anything about how to cure Fjord poison. Maybe someone on _that _side would. But getting that information would be super dangerous and the price would probably be very high. It was stupid and dangerous to summon a demon from another dimension and ask it for help. Giles would probably forbid it. Tara would try to talk her out of it, and knowing how much sense Tara always seemed to make she probably _would_ manage to talk Willow out of it. So Willow kept her plans a secret.

Besides Willow wasn't dumb. She wasn't about to tear open a portal and invite a demon invasion. She just needed to talk to one demon and do so in a safe way. She had found all the spells to do so. She knew she could pull it off without actually bringing the demon into this dimension. All she had to do was convince it to give up the information. No big deal, right?

"I-is everything allright honey? You look lost in thought," asked Tara with genuine concern. They were both kneeling on the floor in Giles's room outside the magic circle, alone for the moment except for the sleeping Buffy.

Willow gave her girlfriend an unconvincing smile. "I'm fine. Just this whole thing has really been grinding me down," she admitted weakly.

Tara nodded and smiled sweetly in understanding. "I've only been here a couple of hours. Why don't you go home and get some s-sleep? I'll be f-fine here until you get back. I know you've been up for at least eighteen hours. Why don't you g-go get some rest and then come at it with fresh eyes again in the morning?"

Willow's heart started beating rapidly. This was the opportunity she needed to be alone to talk to the demon.

"Uhm. Yeah! You know… because rest is good. Very good. I think I'll do that. Just go back to my dorm and and do the whole rest thing, because our bodies and minds crave it. Need it even. And I love to sleep so I'll just do that and head out and and go do the sleep thing. I'm super looking forward to that," she said awkwardly.

Tara gave her an odd questioning look before she just nodded. "I-I'll be here. Don't rush. Everything will be o-ok, you'll see. Nobody here is giving up."

Willow nodded, gathered her things and headed to the door after a quick goodbye to everyone. She had a sinking feeling that if she didn't leave fast enough someone would be able to tell what she was planning on doing. The redhead practically ran out the door and headed in the direction of her dorm room.

Now that she was actually on her way to do it Willow was starting to have seconds thought. There had to be a good reason why every book of non-dark magic insisted that summoning demons at all for any reason was a terrible idea. It didn't matter that she wouldn't actually _physically_ summon a demon, just having a conversation with one was supposed to be dangerous. Especially one like the one she was planning on summoning. He was one of the ruling elite in his realm, a true demon that was supposed to be something akin to a counselor, wise man and prophet for the king of the dimension Crushing Ice. Definitely one of the big wigs where he was from. Definitely _not_ a good idea to summon him in any way shape or form. This wasn't exactly a nice demon dimension they were talking about here either. According to the books the beings in Crushing Ice would gladly invade this dimension and wipe out life on Earth if they could.

But then again Willow had it all worked out. It would be a three part spell that would probably take all afternoon to set up.

One part was the trickiest, which was to summon the astral body of the demon. The bad part of that was that it would only come if it wanted to but most of the texts assured her that demons _always_ wanted to come when summoned to this dimension.

The second was a powerful spiritual containment spell. Even though technically an astral body should be pretty powerless it sure wouldn't hurt to put thick magical walls around to ensure no shenanigans went down.

The third and final part what something Willow had deemed a 'truth spell'. It was standard when summoning hostile entities that you might have to bargain with. It basically forced them to tell the truth. That way any bargains they made could be in good faith… at least as much as it could be with a demon.

This was a terrible idea. Demons always asked for _something_ that would give them an in or foothold either on you or in this world. But if it could save Buffy Willow was willing to risk it. And she wouldn't go too far. It couldn't hurt just to hear what the demon had to say, could it?

Besides it's not like they had a lot of options left. Everything was turning up dry and they were running out of time. If Willow was going to come up with a way to help Buffy she needed to think and act outside the box.

Decision made but still decidedly feeling jitters Willow went about the long process to set up such a complicated set of spells. If she was honest with herself they were a little outside her ability, a little more than she had ever done before. But the redhead felt confident she could handle it. Besides it's not like she had much choice in the matter.

On the floor of the dorm she shared with Buffy she made a circle of fine grained salt lined with smoky quartz and clear quartz. She set candles in the four directions around the circle and sprinkled a mix of herbs the redhead had mixed especially for this ritual. Then she spent a painstaking three hours with a needle carving runes for the containment spell on the salt. As the final touch she carved the demon's name on a block of cherry wood and added a drop of her blood on top of the name. The block went in to the middle of the circle where the demon was to be summoned.

The hard part, the preparation, was done. Now the actual summoning would be relatively easy assuming she had not messed up any of the runes on the salt or that a stray sigh from her wouldn't disturb the symbols. Willow's hands were sweaty as she lit the candles to begin the ritual.

Willow sat cross legged, closed her eyes and began to chant.

"Treso, Master of Knowledge, born of Crushing Ice accept my gift and heed my call. Treso, Master of Knowledge, born of Crushing Ice accept my gift and heed my call. Treso…"

Almost as soon as she began chanting Willow felt her magic reach out and empower all the items in the circle. The power began to build and build until it was almost a tangible presence. After about ten minutes of chanting a faint mist began to form inside the circle. It only took a few minutes more before the image came in to focus.

The image in the mist was small and grainy. It made her think of Star Wars when Leiah's message was played by Artoo… ok geeking out while staring at the astral form of a true demon probably wasn't the best thing to be doing. It looked vaguely bird-like, like a vulture, standing on two feet and holding a large staff as a walking stick. Black eyes blinked at her as it examined her. Then it smiled, and Willow felt her blood run cold.

"Witch," it began in surprisingly clear and amicable voice, "I don't suppose you've called me to sell yourself for power, have we?"

The way he said it made it sound dirty and intimate. Triple eww and weird coming from a bird-demon image. "No, not exactly," replied Willow, surprised that her voice was only the tiniest bit shaky.

"Then why pray tell have you called me? I must admit I was curious, and the offering of blood appreciated, but I don't have all evening to spend on you." The voice was perfectly pleasant but it wasn't hard to see the implied threat. _You better not be wasting my time._

Willow wasn't sure how to broach the subject as the supposedly vicious demon was being all polite and well spoken. Feeling like she should have brushed up on demon etiquette or something Willow decided to be polite but straight to the point.

"Someone I know has been infected with Fjord demon poison. I wish to know how to cure this person."

The demon looked at her curiously, it's eyes lighting up disturbingly. It occurred to Willow it kind of looked like when Giles got excited over some particular puzzle. "One of your species I presume?"

"A human. Yes," said Willow, palms sweaty and her anxiety growing as she sat there having a nice chat with a powerful demon from another dimension.

The demon opened it's mouth as if to say something, then stopped himself. A slow wicked smile spread over it's beak-like face. "Ah, I see. This might not be a _total_ loss. Tell me, is this 'friend' of yours special in some way?" It wasn't really a question. It was like Treso wanted to confirm what he already knew.

Willow suddenly found herself very uncomfortable with the demon knowing things it absolutely shouldn't. But if she didn't play ball any chance of helping Buffy was lost. It's not like who Buffy was was really a secret in the supernatural world. "She is The Slayer," Willow said cautiously.

"I wonder, are you lying to me or are you just ignorant? Quite convenient for you that only _I_ am bound to speak the truth," said Treso, voice still technically pleasant but cold as ice. The look on it's face was hard to really make out since it wasn't a human face, but Willow would guess it was something like 'irritated amusement'.

Willow stared dumbly at the demon wondering what he was going on about before a light bulb went off in her head. "Err, I didn't mean to deceive. I just spoke without thinking. She's not The Slayer I guess. There is another one now, so I guess that makes her _a_ Slayer." Willow had no idea how the bird-thing knew so much about a dimension he should have absolutely no access to. It was kinda freaking the redhead out.

Treso didn't look impressed with her excuse. "I have the information you seek witch," said Treso after a moment of silence. "Are you willing to bargain for it?"

Willow licked her lips. Apart from the whole 'the demon might escape or work some mischief' angle this is why all the books said to stay away from demons. They never gave anything for free and what they ask for in return somehow always ended up having worse consequences than the person doing the ritual bargained for. History is full of how seemingly harmless bargains with demons turned into a war or a demon incursion. Bargaining with demons was universally accepted to be a Bad Idea.

But Willow couldn't keep the rush of excitement from going through her. Here, right in front of her was the answer they had been killing themselves to find since that night Buffy stumbled into Giles's apartment. Right there was what they had been praying and asking for all this time. How bad could it be? It wouldn't hurt to hear the demon out would it?

"I am willing to listen to your terms," said Willow, surprising herself by how confident she sounded.

The demon nodded. "I want to place the Mark of my master on your soul."

Willow nearly choked. "What?!" she cried out in horror and indignation.

"And I want to erase your memories that this bargain ever took place," it finished.

Willow took a few deep breaths to try and get herself to calm down. "What makes you think I would let you put your Master's mark on my _soul_?" asked Willow with surprising anger.

"Because it is completely harmless and benign to you and anyone else unless certain conditions are met. It will have no power over you and no one will be able to influence it in any way except to remove it. I view it as an investment, a gamble that may pay off in our favor."

Willow forced herself to calm down. She knew the demon could not lie but it could still leave things out or imply something that was false without actually speaking a lie. This was a _very_ dangerous game she was playing. "What conditions would have to be met? And what happens if they are met? And how is this an investment for you?"

"You have great power inside you witch. And you are a human, weak of mind and spirit. It is a good bet that you will eventually abuse your power, embrace the darkness and become something evil. Or close enough to evil to serve my master's purpose anyway. If you do embrace evil the Mark will allow my Master to inhabit your body. A chance to allow Him to cross into a virgin out of reach dimension is too good to pass up. The information I would share with you in exchange for this opportunity is quite the bargain for me." The demon worded everything carefully, keeping himself still and his voice neutral. It didn't give Willow much to work with. Not that she should be trusting an unknown demon's body language and voice inflections anyway.

Willow considered what he had said for a few minutes. It seemed fairly airtight without too much room for her to be missing important information. Yet just because she couldn't see what she was missing didn't mean she wasn't missing something dearly important.

"Do you expect me to become evil?" asked Willow, afraid of what the answer might be.

"There is no way to know for sure," replied Treso.

_An avoidance_. Him dodging questions definitely was not a good sign. Willow remembered the demon was described as having prophetic powers or some such. "Have you had any visions, insights or prophesies that tell you I will someday become evil enough for this… Mark to activate?" asked Willow nervously.

The demon gave her a small smile. "I have. I think you should keep in mind that every good Seer knows there is a chance their visions will not come to pass."

Willow frowned. "I thought you were a prophet," she said suspiciously.

The demon's smile widened. "Is there a difference?"

She should end this right now. There is no way this was aboveboard. It's just way too suspicious. The demon had some idea that she might go all evil-e in the future through visions or whatever. If he was right she could be inviting the biggest Big Bad from Crusing Ice to have a nice vacation on Earth prancing around in her body. Even listening to this is stupid. Contemplating it was several magnitudes beyond crazy. If Giles could see her right now he would strange her and never let her near another magic book ever again.

But… but she couldn't just let Buffy die. Even if there was some vision or prophesy or whatever that she might go bad what the demon had said was true. There was no way to know for sure how things would turn out. Besides she was one of the good guys. Except for Tara the redhead thought she was the _last_ person in their group who could go bad. And and if she _did_ go bad… Buffy would be there to stop her right? Buffy couldn't stop any more Big Bads if she was dead.

So… on one hand the chance that _maybe _one day she would get possessed by a demon. Willow remembered having read of at least three different demon-exorcism rituals. If something did happen her friends would be able to fix her right up. Another demon possession was run of the mill stuff for the scoobies. On the other hand if she didn't do this she was pretty sure Buffy was _dead_. Dead was a lot harder to fix than a demon possession that might never happen.

Willow tried to ignore the voice of reason (that sounded suspiciously like Giles and Tara) screaming in the back of her head. "Hypothetically speaking how would this work?" asked Willow.

"Simple really. You declare 'I accept this bargain'. Only what was discussed will be changed. There will be some pain as you are Marked. You will lose consciousness for a short time. Your memories of meeting with me will be erased and your own mind will fill in the blanks as to what happened. And you will awaken with the knowledge you need to save your friend. That is it. No more, no less."

Willow felt glad as well as ashamed to be glad for the whole erasing her memories part of the deal. She didn't really want to live with the guilt and fear and dread of this bargain. The redhead knew if she remembered it would haunt her and she would worry about it endlessly. Maybe it was for the best if she forgot it and could just get on with her life. Focus on being happy so she _didn't_ end up becoming evil. Otherwise it would complicate her life. She just wanted to get back to being happy with Tara and Buffy and all her friends.

"Fine Treso," said Willow before she lost her nerve. In a clear voice laced with her magic she said, "I accept this bargain."

The block of wood with the demon's name on it suddenly caught fire. The demon laughed as blinding pain exploded in her chest. It felt like someone was poking a hot brand inside her heart and lungs. The witch screamed at the top of her lungs before losing all strength and collapsing on the floor.

000

Willow woke up slowly momentarily confused about where she was. She was laying somewhere hard. The redhead opened her eyes to see she was laying on the floor of her dorm room. How had that happened?

Oh yeah… she had been sitting up trying to meditate. The exhaustion must have gotten to her so she had just lay down and gone to sleep.

The redhead looked around. Looked like she had kicked over some candles and ruined a circle of quartz and salt while in her sleep. There was a small burn on the carpet. Where had that come from? It must have always been there. Funny how she had never noticed it before.

Willow set about to clean up the mess she had made. What spell had she been doing? Oh yeah it was a simple spell she had designed to help clear her mind. She had been hoping it would help her get some new insight in to the situation with Buffy.

Suddenly a brilliant idea struck her. At first she was excited, then scared, and then sick. She might have to do a bit of research to make sure it would work but… Willow suddenly knew deep down that this was the only way to save Buffy.

The Fjord poison latched onto the most prominent fundamental essence of it's victims. It could not be removed from the essence. But they could move it to something with an identical essence. The poison would not know the difference and it would not destroy it's host.

The essence of Buffy was the slayer. And there was one other identical essence to her's in all the world.

They could save Buffy… by transferring the deadly poison onto Faith.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Pretty happy with this chapter. The only thing I'm kinda worried about is the pacing. If you have any comments or suggestions about the pacing of this story (or about anything else) please let me know.

Hope this is fun :).

0000

The demon Treso walked thought the eternal ice palace of Crushing Ice. It was a huge echoing structure, hard and foreboding, full of jagged edges and perils for the careless. Reaching a huge pair of double doors he tapped his cane on the floor twice, and the doors that must have weighed many tons opened swiftly of their own accord.

He entered a huge hall with only one outstanding feature: an impressive throne of ice reaching at least fifteen feet of height, every iced edge of it somehow suggesting power, domination and harsh punishment.

Treso knelt before the throne and the figure sitting in it. This was Velc, the lord and master of Crushing Ice.

"It is done my Lord. It happened exactly as prophesized," said Treso with a bowed head.

"So our agent did his work? I must admit I had my doubts. The champions of Earth dimension have such a fearsome reputation. Seems that it was more talk than fact," said the demon Velc.

"Prophesies are quite immutable my Master. It is inevitable that we will succeed."

"We shall see Treso. Tell me, is it guaranteed one of the two champions will be killed? It might make things too easy if all the opposition I will face is one little girl who cannot best a Fjord demon."

"One of the two champions will feel the effects of the poison. Those apes in Earth dimension have no idea how to cure it, thus why the witch made the deal. One of them will fall."

"Pity. Well, the rest of the species is supposed to be cunning even if they are weak. Perhaps this invasion will still provide my armies with some sport," said Velc, as though not entirely convinced.

"It will be another glorious conquest for you, Master."

"And what about our agent?"

"He awaits further orders."

"Tell him to be careful and methodical, not to rush. Driving a person mad is a delicate process. He must do so with minimal risk to himself. And I do not want his connection to our realm to be known. You said the prophecy had to involve a Fjord demon, but I do not want arise suspicions by using any more minions from this dimension. That was risky enough as it is."

"It will be as you wish Master."

"Tell me Treso; is this mercenary truly as reliable as you make him out to be?"

"He is cunning, and as powerful as any demon in your armies. His special skills allow him to strike unseen from the shadows. His reputation is pristine and you are generously paying him a fortune. Do not worry my Master he will succeed; I have foreseen it."

"We shall see. Still you've never failed me before Treso. I must admit I am restless. Turning another pristine dimension into a kingdom of ice and blood is not a pleasure I have experienced for centuries. It is always amusing to add another world to my collection."

"It will be soon my Master. The witch will fall. And your glory and ice will cover the face of the Earth!"

000

**Next Day**

Xander was kind of wigged. That was just the latest of the unpleasantness he had been feeling. Over the past twelve days he had been feeling what pretty much everyone else had been feeling: frustration, helplessness, fear for their friend. Xander felt sure that all the stress over the past two weeks had shortened his life expectancy by a whole five years. Trying to keep everyone's spirits up was one of the things he did best but that didn't mean the male scooby didn't feel the weight of the situation as much as everyone else did.

Now Willow was acting weird. She had called him up and asked him to come meet her at her dorm room. Willow sounded weird and Xander knew something was up but she refused to tell him, only that it had to do with Buffy. Plus she had asked him to keep it a secret from everyone. Including Giles, Tara and Anya. Xander didn't know what to think. He didn't like sneaking around but this was his best bud. He figured he'd better just go along with it and figure out what all the secrets and weirdness was all about.

Xander found himself standing in front of Willow's dorm room. He took a deep calming breath and knocked on the door. He heard some rustling inside and a moment later Willow opened the door.

"Hi Xander," she said to him, offering him a weak smile.

"Err hiya there Willow. How's it been hanging?" said Xander a little awkwardly.

Willow stepped aside and opened the door further. "Why don't you come in?"

Xander let himself in, the feeling of wigginess not having been reduced in the slightest by the awkward greeting. Something was seriously bothering Willow.

As she closed the door behind them Xander spoke up, "So why all the secret meeting stuff Will? Don't you think we should have done it in a dark dank alley at three a.m. if you wanted to get the whole experience?" joked Xander lamely.

Willow looked at him anxiety clear on her face. And she wasn't saying anything. Willow was silent. Willow was never silent. Xander was starting to get wigged more with each passing minute.

"Hello? Earth to Willow? Uhm… is everything ok Will? Because this whole thing is kinda weird," he said in a concerned voice.

Willow hesitated a few moments before speaking, "I… Umm I found a way to help Buffy," she said in a small voice.

Xander stared at her for a moment while what she said hit him. Then he broke out into a huge smile, "That's great! That-That's awesome Willow. Super fantastic even!" But then Xander saw that she wasn't smiling. She was looking at him with pleading eyes and was clearly super nervous.

"Ok… so not super fantastic then?" said Xander as he looked worriedly at Willow.

Willow shook her head. "It involves doing something I don't really want to do," said Willow dejectedly.

Xander was confused. "Ok… why not? And why all the secrecy?"

"I'm doing the whole secrecy thing because I'm almost sure Tara and probably Giles and maybe the others would be dead set against it. But I swear Xander there's no other way! It's the only way to help Buffy!" said Willow, her voice for a moment going almost hysterical.

At seeing how distressed Willow was getting he reached out and pulled her into a hug. "Hey hey don't freak out. I'm sure it's not that bad. Whatever you figured out can only help right? More information is always better and all that," said Xander trying to be reassuring. He didn't really know what to say though. As freaked as Willow was acting Xander was having images of sacrificing newborn babies or having an orgy with demons or something.

"It's the right thing to do," said Willow as she buried her head in his shirt, sounding like she was trying to convince both him and herself.

They both jumped when there was a loud knock on the door. Xander let Willow pull away as she went to answer the door. The scooby was surprised at seeing who walked in the door.

"Riley! Hey bro. What are you doing here?" said Xander momentarily confused by the military man's appearance.

The ex-initiative man looked haggard and worn. "I'd just gotten back into town when Willow called. Asked me to come here and not to tell anyone. That it was about Buffy. What's going on Willow?" he asked the redhead as he stepped in and closed the door.

She ignored the question. "I don't suppose any of your contacts knew of a way to help Buffy?" asked the redhead.

Riley shook his head, looking dejected. "Naw, the few that even knew what a Fjord demon was didn't have a clue about how to treat the poison. It was a long shot at best."

Willow nodded her head as if she had been expecting the news. She walked over to stand between the beds, both men looking at her as she went.

"So, what's this about Willow? What is it that you wanted to talk about having to do with Buffy? You said she was still fine, right?" Riley asked worriedly.

Willow nodded, then took a deep breath. "I found a way to help Buffy. It's like a really murky ethical area though. I-I was afraid Giles a-and Tara would just shoot it down right away," Willow swallowed. "I pretty much want to do it. I-I think it's the right thing to do. I just wanted to talk about it with someone. And I would need help pulling it off anyway."

Xander looked at Willow and chose his words very carefully, "How big a murky grey area are we talking about here Willow?"

"W-Well. We can't remove the poison or neutralize it. But I figured out that we can move the poison. It's like moving it to an identical vessel. And because of who Buffy is there is only one identical vessel to her in all the world."

Xander looked at Willow confusedly not understanding what she was getting at. Riley was trying to stay calm but looked like he was losing his patience.

Willow looked at them both as if expecting them to get it. When she saw they weren't getting it she sighed and sat down at the foot of her bed dejectedly. "It's Faith," she said simply.

There was silence for a few moments while Xander pieced it all together. He thought he got it but it was such a huge bomb he needed to get confirmation. "Wait… you're saying that we can suck the poison out of Buffy by giving it to Faith? And that will cure her?"

Willow nodded while keeping her eyes glued to the floor.

"Oh. Well I can see why you were wigging out about this Will," said Xander, his mind momentarily blank at the huge bomb Willow just dropped on them.

"What's there to wig out about? This is Slayer Faith we're talking about right? The double murdering, body snatching, wanting to destroy all of Sunnydale Faith? If it's between her and Buffy then there's no damn contest as to who we're gonna choose," said Riley, suddenly sounding very excited and energized.

Willow looked up at Riley, but didn't say anything. She then turned to Xander expecting him to say something.

Xander didn't know what to think let alone what to say. But he knew this wasn't just something to decide on a whim. "Now, you all know I'm not a member of the Faith fan club here. That girl is a total psycho who tried to kill us, me in particular if you'll recall. But we can't just decide this on the fly here. This is… this is kind of a big deal," he said hoping to slow this down and give himself a chance to think.

Riley however wasn't interested in that approach. "What is there to think about?" he asked as if genuinely surprised by the suggestion, "Buffy's one of the good guys. A hero. Fights evil every day. Faith is a murderer. She had her chance and decided to become an insane criminal instead. Not a whole lot of wiggle room in those facts."

"Riley, I-I agree with you I think we should do this. But I don't think we should be so cavalier about this whole thing," said Willow, obviously troubled.

"Look if anything it's poetic justice. She tried to kill Buffy and you guys and ruin your lives over and over. She killed two people in cold blood. Where I come from that carries the death penalty. We just might be doing her soul a favor if she gives up her miserable life to save Buffy's," said Riley growing heated at the discussion.

Xander wasn't willing to discount the possibility that they would do this but Riley's attitude was really getting on his nerves. "Now look, it just isn't that simple. It just isn't. Faith's in jail now. We need to really think about this. It's a really big deal," said Xander, mind still reeling from Willow's revelation.

"Really? A big deal? Because it seems pretty clear cut to me," said Riley, starting to get angry at Xander.

Xander for his part was starting to get really ticked off at how Riley was acting. "Look, if some guy needs a heart transplant you can't just go to the local prison and cut out the heart of a convicted killer and nice-guy family man gets a shiny new ticker. You can't just… kill people just like that. So yes, it _is _a big deal Riley," Xander said. He'd just been trying to come up with something take Riley down a peg and what came out of his mouth had sounded smarter than he'd thought it would.

"Well maybe they should do that," said Riley, growing more agitated. "Good people deserve to live and bad people deserve what they get. How many times has Buffy risked her life to save the world? To save this town? To save the two of _you_? Any fair minded person would tell you Buffy deserves to live and the other one deserves whatever is coming to her. Or are you going to tell me that killer's life is more precious than Buffy's?"

"Of course not. But your 'let's just kill another human being without thinking it through' speeches aren't really helping!" snapped Xander.

"Oh yeah?" said Riley stepping closer and getting way inside Xander's personal space, "What do you know? If your fellow soldier is down you shoot through the enemy to get to your buddy. Instead you want to sit here groaning about it when Buffy could die any day now. Is that the kind of friend you are Harris? Is that the kind of man? Are you going to let your friend die over some sick killing bitch?"

Xander was really losing his temper now and got right back in Riley's face. "Don't you dare question our –_my-_ friendship and loyalty to Buffy. You're just a Johnny come lately when we've been fighting and bleeding with her for years. If you knew the first damn thing about Buffy you'd know she'd be the first one to have reservations about this plan. But you're so pissed that Faith fooled you and got in your pants that you won't even take five minutes before you're charging off howling for blood."

"Harris, you don't know the first damn thing-"

"STOP!"

Both men stopped to look at where Willow was sitting. The sight of tears streaming down her face deflated Xander's anger. The male scooby moved and sat down next to her and, understanding what she needed, pulled her into a hug. Willow let herself be held for a few long moments while Riley paced around uncomfortably.

Willow pulled away from Xander and stood up giving him a small thankful smile. She took a moment to compose herself before speaking. "Look there is something else I haven't told you. There is a chance Faith might survive this if we do it."

"What do you mean Will? How?" asked Xander.

Willow shrugged and struggled for a way to explain it. "It… it's sort of like if you duct tape something, then pull the strip of duct tape off and stick it on something else. It won't be quite as strong the second time. So there's a chance it won't kill her," said Willow. However the way she said it it was pretty clear to Xander it was more a wild hope than any real expectation things would turn out that way. To the dark haired scooby it just seemed Willow was trying to rationalize doing this thing to herself.

"Will… are you sure about this? I mean- I want to. Kind of. But Buff would have never gone for this," said Xander, feeling uncertain and confused.

"Look, Buffy tried to kill Faith to save Angel, Xand. I don't like this any more than you do. She would have killed Faith to save Angel if Faith hadn't fallen off that roof onto that truck. I mean she did stab her. If Buffy thinks it's ok to do it then maybe… then maybe it is ok to do it, you know?" said Willow, voice cracking and practically begging him to agree with her eyes.

Xander was stunned by what Willow said for some reason. It did happen that Buffy had tried to kill Faith. None of them had ever really talked about it. It was just one of those things you didn't talk about. Xander always thought Buffy felt some guilt over that, if nothing else then by how she avoided the topic like the plague. But what could he really say to Willow?

Reluctantly Xander nodded his head. He threw his hands up in the air. "Ok. Ok Will. I'm not really liking this plan but if you say there's no other way then I guess I'll go along with it."

Willow nodded her appreciation and the tension in her let go by a small fraction.

"Great. Well I'm glad everyone's seen the light. So how are we gonna do this?" said Riley.

000

**That Evening – Ten Hours Later**

The Los Angeles County detention center was a large building that got a lot of through traffic. It wasn't a true prison, not really. It's where people who were awaiting trial or were in the process of going through a trial were held when they couldn't make bail. One particular person had been a resident for the last couple of weeks. Even though she was confessing to her crimes getting someone through the system was never fast. This particular young woman thought giving herself up and serving her time was the right thing to do. It was her way of trying to make up for all the things she had done. She hadn't guessed it would be so damn boring.

At least she didn't have to share a cell anymore, thought the woman as she did pushups to try and do something with her excess energy. Most people were housed in communal cells where she had been for a few days. Being pretty and young some of the other women kept getting the idea they wanted to 'ugly her up' some. While she was trying to reform the brunette wasn't going to take that crap from some jealous bitches. After seriously pissing off a gang of what she guessed were bodybuilding dykes and breaking more than a few of their bones the guards had finally put her in her own tiny private cell. It was better than constantly having to worry about a shank in the back. But she didn't know what to do with herself. She was still a wild child, full of anger and energy and pain and now she had nothing to do with it but sit by herself and deal with it. It was hard as hell and sort of humbling at the same time.

Doing pushups until her arms and chest couldn't take it anymore she sat down on the floor with her back against the wall. Sometimes pushing her body would distract her but as soon as she stopped it all seemed to come flooding back every time. All the things she had done. Killing Alan Finch and the professor. Torturing Wes. Sunnydale and the Mayor. All the million and one fucked up things she had done to complete strangers and people she knew. And then there was Buffy. Always Buffy.

It all hurt. It was a giant cake of pain with layers that went every which way and they all tasted just a little different. But the one that seemed to bring the most self-loathing was Buffy.

After having weeks to think about things and having a lot of talks with her 'sponsor' she kinda knew why that was. Buffy had never been perfect but she had offered her things she had always desperately wanted. Things she had been too afraid to even hope for for most of her life. The dark haired girl just hadn't seen it. Too afraid to trust, too afraid to get hurt. Having too much god damned pride and anger and not seeing where the others were coming from. Too damn stupid to realize that when people were telling her to stop acting like an animal it was because they cared, not because they were against her. Too damn jealous to realize that the things Buffy had that she wanted for herself were being tentatively offered to her. The girl from Boston had been given a chance at the life she always wanted. And she had blown it.

Even worse, she had hurt the first people that had ever tried to do right by her after her Watcher died. The guilt of hurting people that were kind and good to you was the worst kind. She desperately wanted to make things right. That's why she was determined to stay in prison. It was the only way she could think of to make things right. All the things she had done, all the people she had hurt. Even if no one ever forgave her she needed to do this to be able to live with herself.

Buffy. She didn't know why but she'd had a soft spot for the girl before she'd even met her. Maybe it was the Slayer thing. Maybe the few badass stories her Watcher had told her about the famous Buffy Summers. The brunette didn't know. But for some reason what Buffy thought of her mattered. It got worse after she actually met the girl. She didn't know why the blonde got under her skin so. But she'd desperately wanted to be her friend. To have her approval. The brunette thought that maybe she'd almost had all that too before she'd killed Alan Finch. Then she had gone on a downward spiral hurting and alienating everyone who tried to help her. What a dumb stupid bitch.

Sometimes she wondered if this whole thing with Buffy was unhealthy. She wasn't the only person she'd screwed over not by a long shot. Still for some reason it was her sister Slayer's forgiveness she wanted to earn the most. It was sick, but Buffy was the one person who's harsh words and disapproval still hurt her more than all the rest. It had always been that way since a little bit after she'd met the girl. It didn't make sense. It did make sense. It was all unhealthy and sick.

Clearly she had some unresolved issues with her fellow blonde Slayer.

She knew she was a killer. She was fucked up. She was trash. The one who had given her hope had been Angel. Taking her in and protecting her even after all the shit she'd done. Putting up with her shit and being patient with her and putting her on the right path. Him coming down to see her all the time, that shit almost made her tear up. Him trying to talk to her all the time and helping her find her way. Sometimes he'd just hang out with her and talk about everyday stuff for an hour. She knew she didn't deserve any of that. She'd hurt Angel as badly as anybody else she'd hurt. But she couldn't help but be insanely grateful to have him there. Even if she wouldn't see him as much once she went to the big house just knowing he was there and maybe seeing him once in a while went a long way in helping her deal with all the fucked up shit she was going through.

The brunette owed the souled vampire so much. Apart from her first Watcher he was the only thing she'd ever felt she could count on in her whole life. It wasn't something she'd ever be able to repay.

The brunette sat there, contemplating her past and her life when one of the guards came into the cell block and walked right up to her cell. She eyed the female guard curiously as the woman thrust an envelope in her direction.

"You got a letter Lehane," the woman said.

The brunette sat there looking at the letter stupidly for a moment since this had never happened before. When the guard started to look impatient she reached up and grabbed the letter. It was hardly out of her hand when the guard turned and walked away.

It was just an envelope with her name written on it in neat lettering. She thought the writing was somehow familiar but she couldn't place it. It definitely wasn't Angel's handwriting. Maybe it was something Cordi or Wes had sent over for Angel. She couldn't think of who else would be sending her letters.

She opened the sealed envelope and pulled out what was inside. It was a folded up sheet of paper. She opened it up to look at the contents. The sheet of paper was completely blank. What the hell?

She looked on both sides of the sheet of paper and again inside the envelope in case she had missed anything. Nothing. What the fuck? Who would bother sending her a blank sheet of paper?

The brunette looked at her hands and noticed they were coated in a white and very fine powder. She almost thought it was chalk dust until she saw that it glimmered green when it caught the light. Her Slayer senses started pricking at the sight telling her that something was definitely not right here.

Suddenly her limbs grew incredibly heavy and she started to get dizzy. She tried to get up, to move and get the powder off of her when she collapsed on the floor. The room was spinning and she felt nauseous. She tried to speak to maybe call for somebody but her voice wouldn't work. It was even getting difficult to breathe.

She lay on the floor of her cell for like felt like hours but couldn't have been more than ten or twenty minutes. Unable to move, speak and having a hard time breathing and not knowing what was going on scared the living shit out of her. The brunette was just starting to get a little bit of control over her limbs again when all the lights went out. She heard screams and shouts from outside her cell, both by prisoners and by guards who seemed to be confused by what was going on.

Two men with masks on walked in to the cell block and headed straight for her cell. The woman's first thought is that it must be the Council, or Wolfram and Heart, or anyone else with a grudge against her sending killers to finish the job. The other prisoners in the cell block started shouting at the two men but they completely ignored them.

The woman forced herself to sit up. It felt like her whole body weighed a metric ton of concrete. She managed to prop herself up against the wall almost panting from the exertion it took to do that much.

One of the men did something to her cell door which she couldn't see and it opened readily. The other produced a needle filled with some yellow liquid and walked menacingly towards her.

When the man with the needle reached towards her neck she lashed out as best she could, bringing her arm to hit his face. She managed to hit him in the chest with barely enough force to stagger him back.

"Help me out here. We don't have much time!" the one with the needle hissed.

The other masked man knelt in front of her and grabber her arms, holding her down. She tried to struggle but she was still weak, far too weak. She tried to kick with her legs but they were so heavy she couldn't get them to do what she wanted. The brunette tried not to cry out as the other man yanked her head roughly to the side and stuck the needle in her neck.

The last thing she remembered was being lifted up roughly and carried out of her cell before everything went to black.

000

If there was one thing he loved about his job it was this: he always got to travel for business.

This particular demon wasn't a fan of cities. Sure, that's where most of the jobs were but he would much prefer to spend his time in the last few untamed wildernesses of the world. There one could hunt as one was properly meant to, tracking your prey over vast stretches of wilderness. There he could find his pets. There the blood always tasted sweeter. Especially the rare times you caught a human in places like that.

It was unfortunate his last pet had been killed. It had been strong and vicious and surprisingly easy to work with once he broke into its mind. But the job had been successful and his employers were most pleased. Besides finding and breaking a new pet always proved to be an exciting adventure.

This trip was going to be a busy one. To be sure he could pull off the rest of the job he'd have to find and break a number of new pets. Having multiple ones at once was always troublesome but it would be well worth it once he received his payment. It was the ransom of a king. Or the price of a whole dimension, the demon chuckled darkly.

And such an enjoyable job too. He wasn't usually hired for jobs like this since that wasn't his reputation. But the demon could admit that he was looking forward to this. Driving a human to madness and despair. The demon chuckled darkly. He supposed he'd go for the classics on this one, tried and true methods typically work the best. Perhaps with a little flair to keep things entertaining.

The demon approached a cave deep in a jungle in Bangladesh. He could feel the mind of the new pet he was looking for. This one could create a whole colony of little workers. Good. Since this was probably his last job in this dimension before it changed forever the demon was going to collect the very best specimens and make this job go off with a real bang. It had been fun over the many long years. He felt the need for an impressive last show.

It would take him a while to collect all the specimens he wanted but that didn't bother him. He was ancient and his employers had told him to take his time and do it right. And he would do it right. He'd drive the poor human to pure madness and evil and beyond. Because he always completed his jobs.

Always.

000

**Seven Minutes Later – Outside L.A. County Detention Center **

Willow felt bile rise up in her throat as she saw Riley unceremoniously throw the unconscious Faith in the trunk of their rental Lincoln towncar. He didn't even look at her twice before shutting the trunk.

"Come on Willow," Riley said as he walked past her, "we've got to go in case someone saw us."

Willow knew that, it was her plan after all. After one last lingering look at the trunk of the car the redhead opened the door and climbed in to the back seat.

With Riley in the driver's seat and Xander upfront they pulled out of the parking lot slowly. Willow practically held her breath for ten minutes as they drove through the city, expecting that at any minute police cars with sirens and helicopters would start chasing them. It wasn't until they hit the highway and started heading North without any pursuit that she started to relax a bit.

Riley slammed his hand on the steering wheel. "Hell yeah! We pulled off that operation without a hitch. That was awesome," he turned back to look at Willow with a big smile on his face, "That was a great plan, and all that magic you did was amazing. Great job Willow."

Willow tried to smile at him but didn't quite manage it. He didn't even notice though as he was already turning to Xander and slapping him in the shoulder congratulating him for a job well done.

Willow looked out the window and thought about what she had done, and what she would have to do next.

The witch had never before done so many spells back to back. She had never used as much magic in a single day as she had that day. The redhead was exhausted, but part of her felt giddy and excited. Doing a lot of magic like that was quite the rush. Doing magic always felt good, but doing so much of it felt _really_ good. She had more incentive now than ever now to pour herself into studying magic. Willow was starting to understand that she could be a really powerful witch.

There had been the spell to create the paralyzing powder keyed specifically to Faith. There had been the spell to make Riley and Xander effectively invisible to the guards while the lights were out. She had created a magic key opener that would open most doors for a short period of time. And finally she had hexed the security system of the detention center and blown the lights. Willow could have done the last bit with computers instead of magic but she had been on such a roll she didn't want to stop.

In fact over the last two weeks she had done so many magical things to help with Buffy's situation that Willow felt like her magic skills had reached another level. What she could do in the future with all her newfound confidence and power was exciting to her.

Still as magically exhausted as she was she still had a couple of major spells to do tonight. First they had to figure out how to get Faith and Buffy in the same room for several hours without anyone interrupting. Then Willow would have to work some major mojo to cure Buffy.

She wished she could ask Tara to help her with the spell but she knew it wasn't an option. Her sweet, kind Tara would never go along with something like this.

The redhead fidgeted in her seat thinking about what, or who lay in the trunk of their car. Willow really, really didn't like Faith. She kinda hated Faith actually. The redhead would have been happy to see her spend a long long time in prison.

But after Buffy had confided in her everything that had gone down L.A. on a very angry and agitated night after she got back Willow could say she felt just a tiny bit bad for the darker Slayer. It didn't change the fact the she pretty much despised the other girl for everything she had done. But it kinda made Willow see her more as human as opposed to just another evil thing drawn to the Hellmouth. Seeing Faith as a person instead of just another monster was making this whole plan very hard for her.

Buffy had once done the same thing. Hell she had done the same thing to the exact same person. Willow kept clinging on the idea that is if it was something Buffy would do when it was necessary then it was the right thing to do. She knew it was the right thing to do. It just didn't _feel_ like the right thing to do.

Willow leaned her head against the window and drifted off into a fitful sleep as all the magic of the day finally catching up to her. She slept for the whole two hour ride back to Sunnydale giving in to the her exhaustion. The car stopped and Xander reached back and shook her awake.

"Willow, we're here," Xander said.

000

It didn't turn out to be that hard to sneak the unconscious Faith up to the upstairs bedroom in Giles's apartment to do the ritual. Only Giles and Tara had been present late at night when they arrived. Willow relieved Tara of her duties watching over the stasis spell. The other witch was suspicious and upset when Willow would give her half hearted avoidances and in the end just flat out refused to tell her where she had been all day and why she hadn't come to relieve her when she was supposed to. In the end Tara was too tired to keep arguing and left to go back to her dorm feeling disappointed.

Xander and Riley entered a little bit after that. Giles was looking so exhausted and was so focused that he didn't pick up on how suspiciously the two men were acting. Xander asked Giles to step outside with him because he wanted to discuss something with Giles that he didn't want Riley to overhear. It took some persuading but Giles finally relented to step out the back and have a quick chat with Xander. Riley took that opportunity run to the car, grab Faith and take her unconscious form up the stairs.

"Lay her down next to Buffy," Willow instructed Riley. The soldier did so just gently enough to keep from jostling Buffy.

"Great. What now?" asked Riley looking anxious.

"No I'm going to need a couple of hours undisturbed to pull this off. You probably will want to head downstairs and be there when Giles and Xander come back in to avoid suspicion."

Rilley hesitated. "Are you sure there isn't anything I can do?" he asked.

"You've done plenty," said Willow sounding harsher than she intended. She moderated her tone, "Just please go downstairs. Don't let anyone come upstairs and disturb me. This is going to be difficult enough as it is."

Riley's face clearly said he wanted to stay but he nodded. "Right. Don't worry no one will bother you. Good luck," he said and headed out of the room closing the door behind him.

When Riley was gone Willow turned to look at the bed. The two slayers lay there side by side almost touching on the full sized bed. Willow's gaze first turned to Buffy. Her features were drawn and pale and there were large circles under her eyes as if she hadn't slept in weeks. All her usual vitality and strength were nowhere to be found. The blonde Slayer truly looked like she might be at death's door. It wouldn't be long now until her time ran out. Willow affectionately touched her best friend's cheek.

Then Willow turned to look Faith, the dark Slayer, her best friend's evil 'sister'. Unconscious all her face muscles were relaxed. She didn't have that indifferent mask, or that cocky as hell smirk on her face. She didn't have an eyebrow raised suggestively or that shit-eating amused look she got when she made a sexual comment that made everyone else uncomfortable. Her face wasn't twisted in anger and rage and hate or have a cruel as a knife smile on her face. With her face relaxed she just looked like a girl. A very pretty girl. It was hard to imagine and hard to remember how rotten she was on the inside just looking at her like that.

Willow reached down and arranged their hands, Buffy's on top of Faith's. The two of them would need to be touching for the spell to work. Next she reached in her bag and pulled out a ball of yarn and some scotch tape. She cut a length of string from the ball of yarn and taped one end to each of the Slayer's hearts. Willow needed to bring their Slayer essences to meld together as much as possible so she could transfer the poison safely. The string between their hearts was a symbol that would allow her to focus her magics better.

Next she lit candles and placed them in the position of a pentagram around the bed. It would help to set a boundary to contain her magics and bring better balance for this type of spell. Finally Willow pulled a small bottle and scooped out a cream that smelled like fine incense. She methodically rubbed the cream over the two warriors' foreheads, lips and throats. The herbs in the cream were a special blend made to loosen the chains on the spirit and facilitate the transference of energies.

Preparations complete Willow moved herself to stand at the head of the bed. She reached out and placed a hand on each of the girls's heads. For this particular spell she wouldn't need any words. She just needed to focus with her mind, spirit and essence in order to reach theirs.

Willow felt her magic and mind penetrate in to each of the Slayers reaching deep inside to find the core of their essence. It didn't take very long and she didn't have to try very hard. The essence of the Slayer was impossible to miss. It was dark, old, strong, powerful, primal, undeniable. If a star could burn dark that would give one an idea of what the Slayer essence was like. If nature red in tooth and claw were just a little bit darker that might begin to describe what a Slayer truly was. The hunter. The predator. All alone like the tiger or the mountain lion. It was born to hunt, to kill alone. That's how it was meant to be. That was in it's very instinct. It's very purpose. Coded in as surely as DNA.

But then there were two and Willow could see the beauty and the contradiction in it. Their essences weren't two different tigers crossing in the jungle. They were the _same_ tiger, down to the blood and bone and marrow. Closer than twins, closer than even clones could be. Willow now understood that there were not two Slayers. There was one Slayer essence, one entity, one power that somehow lived in two places at once.

But even though the power was just one thing it still lived in two different girls. It was easier than Willow thought it would be to bring the essences of the Slayers to blend together, easier than pouring water into water or air into air. The witch looked and felt until she found the tainted corruption of the Fjord poison. It mixed and spread out as Buffy's essence touched Faith's until it covered both but at the same time became further diluted. When the two essences and the poison were mixed in perfect harmony Willow began to pull.

It was a slow painstaking process. Tiny bit by tiny bit she had to tease Buffy's Slayer essence from Faith's, making sure the poison always ended up filling Faith's half of the power. The poison seemed to struggle and fight her efforts and for a painful anxious time the witch thought the poison would detonate and kill both Slayers. But eventually Willow got more or less the trick to it and the poison would only twist and writhe a little bit as she separated it from Buffy. Willow felt sick as she felt the poison begin to cling greedily to Faith's essence.

Willow heard some commotion downstairs but she couldn't let it distract her from what she was doing. It seemed to take forever and Willow was afraid her concentration would start slipping soon as her weariness grew. But after was seemed like an eternity she was done. The witch checked and double checked that Buffy was completely clean of the poison before she collapsed in a chair in the corner of the room, absolutely exhausted.

The witch held her head in her hands. She was going to have the mother of magical hangovers tomorrow. Willow knew she had done too much, far too much in one day. Her head already felt like it was ready to split in two.

She had only been done for a few minutes when the door to the bedroom opened. The witch felt someone move to stand a few feet away from her. Exhausted she looked up to see who was now in the room with her.

"Tara?" said Willow in surprise, "I thought you'd gone home. What are you doing here?"

Tara had wetness glistening in her eyes. Her look was still held some measure of her ever present kindness, but she was also angry, and worse yet for Willow looking at her like she had never seen her before.

"Tara, what-"

"How could you Willow?" said Tara quietly. Her eyes were full of sadness and hurt.

Willow looked down, unable to meet her gaze, "W-what do you mean?" said Willow lamely.

"I knew something was wrong when I left. I was tired and against my better judgment went home. But I felt something was really off and it kept bothering me so I came back. Xander spilled the beans when I confronted him. How could you do this Willow? This-this isn't what magic is supposed to be for. This is dark magic. This is sick."

"Tara, y-you don't understand. Buffy-"

"I could feel the spell. I could feel it's darkness Willow. No matter what you say it's a spell that hurt someone. Spells that hurt people are dark magic. You know that. The only reason I didn't come in here to stop you is because it would have hurt both of them."

"It was the right thing to do," said Willow defensively, "Buffy was dying. Would have _died_."

"So the right thing to do was to to lie, lie to me, lie everyone, kidnap some girl and lie to me again so you can do dark magic behind my back? Magic that would kill someone? Goddess Willow. I-I don't think I even know who you are anymore. Or even if I ever did," said Tara. She opened her mouth as if to say something else. But instead she closed it, turned on her heel and walked out of the room with tears running down her face.

"Wait, Tara baby!" called out Willow after her but Tara brought her arms up to hug herself and kept on walking.

Willow didn't go after her, too physically and emotionally wrecked to muster up the energy. The read headed computer nerd put her face into her hands and wept.

000

A/N: Hey delightful readers. I was wondering if anyone who has any skills in graphic design/digital art etc would be interested in making an image for this story? I don't have the skills or equipment to do that and it would be wonderful is someone who liked this story wanted to do a custom image for me. If you're any interested send me a message!

BTW please let me know what you think of the story. Reviews and private messages are all welcome. Get involved, give feedback! It's always appreciated.

Also, I know that the scoobs were at least partially at fault in how things with Faith went down. At this point in the story when she is in prison however Faith is all about self-recrimination and guilt and thinking it was all her fault. With time she would start to see a more balanced view of what happened. But at this point in her life she feels so bad for what she's done she's blaming herself for everything. That's just the point she was at.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: A reviewer mentioned that Riley was really OOC and didn't like him last chapter. Just wondering if anyone else felt the same? Probably do need to tone it down he was kind of 2-dimensional in the only big scene he's been in. In my defense I needed someone to play the 'throw Faith to the wolves' card and I thought Riley would be best for it. Anyway here is the next chapter, hope you enjoy.

And I would like to say, thank you to everyone who's read and reviewed! :D

0000

Buffy woke up and slowly opened her eyes. She blinked at the harsh sunlight shining in her face. It took her sleep addled brain a few moments to realize she was in her own bed at her house. Her whole body ached and she felt sluggish and gummy. The blonde didn't remember how she had ended up sleeping in her room in her house. She closed her eyes and tried to remember what had happened.

The last thing she remembered she had been patrolling in Restfield. She had decided to trust that Faith was making a real attempt at redemption and resigned herself that her sister Slayer was out of her life for good. Buffy remembered thinking that she needed to leave all that behind and focus on the here and now with Riley. Then she had gone to finish her sweep of the cemetery.

Then nothing. She had no memory of anything that happened afterwards.

As much as Buffy wanted to know what happened what she really wanted right then was to go back to sleep. However her bladder was telling her she really needed to get up and take care of business. When Buffy pulled the covers back she realized she was wearing one of her old sets of pajamas. God how out of it had she been if someone had brought her to her house and then changed her without her noticing?

Starting to feel a little wigged Buffy stood up. Her legs were more than a little wobbly as she walked to the bathroom. Once inside she used the toilet before washing her hands and face. When she looked at herself in the mirror she got quite the fright.

Her face was thinner. She touched her face with her hands and poked her cheeks as if somehow that would explain what she was seeing. Buffy had always been a slim girl but when you see yourself in the mirror everyday it's easy to see big changes. Her cheekbones stood out more and the softness of her face was somewhat more angular. She pinched her butt and her thighs and found they seemed to be a little smaller. A cold fist gripped her inside. How long had she been out of commission if she was noticeably thinner than before?

Buffy's first panicked thought was that she had been in a coma. A suspicion arose in her mind. Was this like some kind of revenge coma? Had Faith busted out of prison and somehow come back for a tit for tat?

Buffy shook her head. She wouldn't put it beyond the dark Slayer but she couldn't jump to any conclusions. She had to find out what was going on.

With a resolve to find out what was going on Buffy headed down the stairs. Hopefully somebody was around who could explain why she didn't remember anything and looked like she had spent a month being over enthusiastic at Jenny Craig. To her surprise and relief her old Watcher was sitting on kitchen table sipping tea and reading the paper.

"Giles!" said Buffy with relief.

The British man looked up at her and his eyes widened. "Buffy!" he exclaimed, quickly setting his tea down and getting up. He quickly walked over to her and pulled her in to a hug. Giles let go rather quickly, seemly embarrassed by his outburst of affection. "My word, are… are you feeling all right Buffy? We've all be quite worried about you."

"I feel fine mostly," said Buffy a little confused by Giles's uncharacteristic display of affection, "it must have been pretty bad if you're suddenly giving out spontaneous hugs, huh?" said Buffy with a tiny smile.

Giles takes off his glasses and begins to clean them. A nervous habit of his. "Yes it was rather bad Buffy. You gave us all quite a scare. How much do you remember?"

Buffy desperately wanted to hear the answers to what had happened but she realized she was also starving. Deciding she needed to grab something fast so she could sit and talk to Giles she went about grabbing cereal and milk. "Actually not much. I was out at night patrolling in Restfield. And then Woosh! I wake up in my bed looking more like Kate Moss. Not even a tiny scrap of memory of anything in between. What's up with that?" said Buffy glibly, though on the inside she was making quite the effort to stay calm until she got some answers. Another thought occurred to her, "Where is everyone?" she asked.

Giles chose to field the easier question first. "Your mother is at work. Everyone has been run quite ragged since you were injured. After it became clear you would… that you were out of danger I persuaded everyone they should go home and recuperate. I volunteered to stay and keep an eye on you while your mother was away."

Buffy could tell by Giles's tone of voice that he was unhappy about something. The blonde finished getting all she needed for breakfast and sat on the table across from Giles. "Ok," said Buffy as she poured herself cereal, anxiety starting to rise inside of her, "so… what _happened_ Giles?" she asked her voice losing some of its cool.

The former Watcher took a deep breath before launching in to it. "That night you were attacked by a rare species of demon called a Fjord demon while out on patrol. Your arm was mauled during your fight with the demon. You came to my door that night because of your injuries. They were quite serious and required tending to but were not in any way life threatening. However shortly after you arrived you collapsed and lost consciousness,"

The tweed loving man took a moment to sip more tea while he slowed enough to allow Buffy to digest what she was being told. The girl had a thoughtful and troubled expression on her face as she listened. "It turned out the demon had infected you with a powerful poison. It made you lose consciousness and gave you an unnaturally high fever. This put us in a difficult position as this particular poison has no known cure. Tara and Willow cast a spell to slow down the effects of the poison. Until a… solution was found you spent a total of twelve days unconscious while you were poisoned. This is the thirteenth day."

Buffy just stared at Giles while the man paused to let the blonde Slayer process all of this. She guessed thirteen days of not really eating explained why she was somewhat thinner though they had probably gotten at least something down her throat. As her hunger demanded she dug into her cereal enthusiastically but her mind was on what Giles had just told her. It wasn't the end of the world she guessed but it was still a lot to wrap her head around. It was all very disorienting. She was also in so much deep crap in all of her classes. Buffy winced at the thought of how much of a mess that was going to be. It was possible she might even have to withdraw from some of her classes after missing this much time.

Then the thought occurred to her, "So do I need to get out there and find this demon?" she asked.

Giles looked surprised at the question. "Oh no, no I don't think so. You killed the demon the night it attacked you. And I very much doubt that there are any more like it in Sunnydale."

"Oh, well that's good. So was it just a random demon attack?"

Giles took off his glasses and cleaned them. "I don't believe so no. The demon that attacked you would not have been in Sunnydale under any normal circumstances. It was a creature of animal intelligence that is only naturally found in frigid arctic climates. There is no way a creature such at that would have just wandered in to Sunnydale. Something or someone must have brought it here."

It did seem farfetched that a demon who liked the North Pole and Alaska as living space would take a wrong left turn and end up in California. Buffy made a face. "Are we thinking big bad? Because we haven't finished dealing with that freaky Adam thing yet. Or do you think he could have had something to do with this?"

Giles looked thoughtful. "I'm not sure Buffy but it seems unlikely. It would take a lot of resources to find and capture such a creature even for the Initiative. Then to simply let it loose on Sunnydale? It doesn't seem like any kind of logical course of action. There are easier ways for Adam to acquire minions. For now however everything has been quiet on the Adam front."

There was a drawn out silence in which Buffy took the time refill her cereal bowl. Buffy looked at Giles while the man went back to his tea. There was something he wasn't telling her. By how he spoke and how he looked Buffy could tell something was weighing heavily on her Watcher's mind.

"Well at least I didn't end up in an eight month coma," Buffy joked lamely, and wincing a little at the poor taste of her joke as soon as it came out of her mouth. She'd sort of been thinking it and it had sounded better in her head.

Apparently it was the wrong thing to say as Giles's features grew tight and his mouth set in a hard line. His whole body was tense as he went to pour himself more tea.

"Giles? What's wrong? There's something you're not telling me. What's going on? Spill it," said Buffy in her 'I will not take no for an answer' voice.

The former Watcher looked at Buffy with a pained expression before giving the girl a small nod. The man took a deep breath and seemed to take forever to gather his thoughts. It was starting to make Buffy anxious, this was not typical Giles-like behavior. Just as she was thinking of reaching across the table and shaking some answers out of him he spoke.

"When I told you before the poison you were infected with has no known cure I meant. No one seemed to know how to counteract the poison and we had not had much success in coming up with a solution. It was Willow who came up with a way to help you. In their desperation to help you Willow along with Xander and Riley did something incredibly foolish and dangerous while keeping it hidden from everybody. It was dangerous, morally bankrupt and involved the usage of dark magics. The height of idiocy, they-" Giles had to stop himself and take a moment to regain his calm. "I'm sorry Buffy. I'm glad to have you back, I truly am. But I am extremely cross at their actions. Especially Willow. I really thought she was the smart one of the group."

Buffy was getting more than a little freaked. She could count on one hand with fingers to spare how many times Giles had been upset enough to even go on a mini rant like that. "What did they do Giles?" asked Buffy with some trepidation.

Giles gave Buffy a look as if deciding how to word it, and in the end just came out and told it bluntly. "We couldn't remove the poison without killing you so Willow figured out if you moved the poison to something with an identical essence it would not hurt you. You essence is that of the Slayer. So keeping it a secret from everyone those three went down to L.A., drugged and kidnapped Faith out of prison, and dragged her back up here in the boot of their car. They snuck Faith's unconscious body up to where you were and Willow performed dark magics to syphon the poison from you and give it to Faith."

Buffy looked at her mentor in openmouthed disbelief. "_What!?"_ she shrieked at him.

"It's true I'm afraid. And Willow refuses to accept that she'd done anything wrong. The bloody twit," said Giles, the last part mostly to himself.

Buffy made a few vaguely speech-like noises before something intelligible came out of her mouth. "Is-is Faith ok?" asked Buffy who was surprised at how concerned she sounded.

Giles paused and took a deep breath. "I'm afraid not. The poison is very strong and as I said there is no known cure. If the literature is correct she will only live for another day or two. I'm so sorry Buffy," said Giles, suddenly sounding very tired.

Buffy mind couldn't believe it. Faith was like a ball of energy and passion given flesh. She couldn't just be lying somewhere unconscious waiting to die. Waiting to die at the hands of her friends. The blonde Slayer had to see for herself.

"Where is she?" asked Buffy, her voice sounding hoarse to her.

"Still at my apartment. That's where you were while you were unconscious. We thought it best to leave her there while we brought you here."

"Ok," said Buffy already moving to put away what she had eaten for breakfast and put the dishes in the sink, "I want to go over there right now. Who's staying with her?"

Giles looked guilty at her question. "Erm, no one at the moment. She won't-won't be regaining consciousness Buffy. We didn't feel it was necessary."

Buffy spun on Giles, feeling fury well up inside her. "Not necessary? Not _necessary_? You tell me she's on her deathbed and no one is even staying with her? God, no wonder she wanted to kill us all!" she shouted before giving Giles a lingering dirty look and heading up the stairs to her room.

Buffy yanked out jeans, underwear and a tank top from her drawers and after having a short debate with herself took them all into the bathroom. A very quick shower later she was dressed and headed back down the stairs. She was tempted to head out the door without a word and walk to Giles's place but she knew it would be faster if he drove her there. Buffy was still feeling mad at Giles and pretty much everyone in the scoobies but right then she was more concerned with the idea of Faith being alone right now.

When Buffy made it back to the kitchen she found Giles just finishing washing the teapot and cup he was using.

"Well, we gonna go or what?" said Buffy with her arms crossed, waiting for him expectantly.

Giles nodded with a distressed and resigned look on his face. "Sure thing Buffy," he said grabbing his keys.

The ride to Giles's apartment was a quiet one and it gave Buffy time to think. The Slayer was glad Giles didn't speak because she was in a really bad mood now and needed time to put her thoughts together. What her friends did was wrong. It was just wrong. She had no idea why any of them thought this was the right thing to do. What the hell were her friends thinking? No not all her friends. Giles said they had gone behind the other's backs to do this. Riley, Xander and Willow. She never thought her two best friends were capable of something like this. And Riley. What was she supposed to think? She knew he loved her and that he totally hated Faith after what had happened in the bodyswap fiasco and learning about most of their history together. But that didn't make it ok. In fact maybe it made it even worse.

Then there was Faith. There was always another surprise when it came it Faith, it never failed. Even though this completely wasn't her fault she couldn't help but feel just a small bit of resentment for the other girl. It's like Faith's sole purpose in life was to swoop in and complicate Buffy's. To turn her head around and leave her reeling and confused and mad and just overall feeling like poop. Even while she was in a coma Faith had bothered Buffy because she felt responsible, not really cramping her in her day to day life but it had still been a nagging discomfort of guilt and worry that seemed to hang out on just the outskirts of her everyday worries.

And _just_ when she was going to jail and Buffy thought she'd be getting some closure to that chapter of her life her own friends had brought the brunette Slayer back to Sunnydale. And now Buffy had to once again deal with the confused mess that was her relationship with Faith.

_But you won't have to deal with it for long_ a small voice said in her head. Buffy pushed away the stray thought. She couldn't accept Faith was going to die. Not until she saw her. Buffy half expected the other girl to be sitting up waiting for her, ready to mock her for her stupidity before they tried to beat each other senseless again. Faith wouldn't just die to some underhanded stunt like this.

When they arrived at Giles's apartment Buffy was out the passenger side door before the car had even stopped. She power walked to the door as fast as she could and let herself in using her key.

_Ok Faith let's see if I'm going to have to do some butt kicking today, _thought Buffy as she walked in to the apartment. A quick scan of the bottom floor of the apartment revealed a messy place but no rouge Slayers. She checked the downstairs coat closet and the kitchen just to be sure.

_Ok, _thought Buffy nervously, _I guess she might be upstairs._

The blonde felt her stomach flip flop as she walked up the stairs taking them slower than she really had to. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she reached the top of the stairs and looked at the closed door that led to Giles's bedroom. Buffy walked over and gently opened the door.

Faith was laying under a blanket, her eyes closed and her expression somehow not entirely peaceful. Sweat covered her brow and the blonde thought the other girl looked paler than she had ever seen her.

"Faith?" called out Buffy still standing in the doorway.

There was no response from the other girl. The blonde bit her lip anxiously before walking over to the side of the bed.

"Faith," the blonde repeated louder, loud enough to wake just about anyone. Buffy tried to keep down the unpleasant surge of panic.

"Faith! Wake up!" the blonde said louder while grabbing the girl's arm and shaking her none too gently. Buffy watched closely as Faith's eyes didn't even flicker and her body didn't even twitch. Under Buffy's hand Faith's arm was hot like she had a high fever.

Somehow the Faith not responding at all left the blonde Slayer feeling deeply disturbed. Her insides turned to ice and a deep pain in her heart began as what Giles had told her began to feel real.

"No, don't die on me you bitch. I hate you but you're not supposed to die," said the blonde before she felt tears start to swell up in her eyes. On impulse Buffy reached down and put the other Slayer's hand in her own squeezing it hard. She sat on the edge of the bed with her side barely touching Faith's. The blonde looked down at the face of her sister Slayer and felt a whole swell of different and confusing emotions rising up inside her.

The blonde reached out tentatively and brushed the back of her fingers gently against Faith's cheek. At that moment Buffy realized that whatever their seriously messed up relationship was it had affected her more deeply than she had let herself admit before. Buffy realized that if Faith died some part of her heart would die too, sort of the same as if Willow, Xander or Angel died. She wouldn't be _as _devastated as if one of those other three died. But she _would_ feel deeply and painfully the loss just the same.

Yes she still held a grudge against the brunette the size of Texas and still thought she needed jail or something like it to straighten her out. Yes she was still hurt and angry and if the other girl was awake she'd probably still be cold to her, yell at her and punch her in the face. But goddammit for some reason she still cared about what happened to crazy Faith. The blonde couldn't just let her die like this.

Buffy let the tears fall freely from her face as she looked down at the pale, unmoving form of Faith. The blonde Slayer was not a quitter but she knew everyone had been looking for the cure for this poison for almost two weeks. At any moment she would go down stairs and demand of Giles that they find some way to help Faith. But the blonde knew it would probably be a futile gesture since she knew her friends would have already tried everything they could think of to find an answer.

The blonde Slayer realized she couldn't just sit there and cry. She had to get up and do something even if all she wanted to do was sit next to Faith and feel sorry for herself and for everything that had happened between them. On impulse Buffy leaned down on the unconscious brunette and wrapped her arms around her in a tight hug. Buffy couldn't imagine hugging a conscious Faith and didn't know why she was doing this except that maybe when she was unconscious it was somehow safe to show she cared.

"I'll do what I can. Just don't give up, ok? Don't go dying on me. I'm not going to forgive you if you do," whispered the blonde into Faith's ear.

Buffy disentangled herself and stood up. From what she knew the chances of helping Faith were slim. That didn't mean she wasn't going to try though.

The blonde wanted to tell Faith that everything would be fine but she couldn't bring herself to say it. Not when she didn't quite believe it herself. Drying any remaining tears Buffy turned and went back downstairs to look for answers.

00000

Even though it was the middle of the day Spike sat at Willy's bar throwing down a pint. Spike didn't use to come to Willy's _that_ often before. Sure it was a nice enough place if you ignored the stench of vomit and unwashed bodies along with the years of built up grime in every corner. But there was one other reason that he found himself at Willy's so often these days.

Here there were actual "people" that he could hurt. That he could _kill_. If he wanted to. Getting drunk helped him feel better too.

It gave Spike some solace that he could turn on the ugly demon chap next to him and not be crippled by blinding pain. Still it didn't change facts. What those damnable initiative blokes had done by sticking a chip in his head had essentially ruined his life.

"Hey, I heard a Fjord got the Slayer. You hear about that?" said a demon next to Spike talking to his buddy on the other side. This got Spike's attention. The Slayer hadn't been seen for a while was the scuttlebug. He didn't know what a Fjord demon was but he was going to buy the thing a round of drinks if it _did_ kill the Slayer.

"Naw, there _was_ a Fjord in town. But I heard the Slayer killed it," answered demon number two.

"So did it bite the Slayer?" asked demon number one.

"No idea. But it's going on two weeks since she's been seen. It's starting to look like maybe the Fjord _did _take a chunk outta the blonde."

"Well it's no big frigging deal. If she is dead they'll have a new Slayer here by the end of the month. Slayers are like a damn murderous phoenix, no matter how many you kill another one just like it shows up a bit later to keep on making life in the Hellmouth interesting."

Spike hadn't realized it had been quite that long since Buffy was last seen. Some part of him felt definite pleasure at hearing of her demise while another part of him... well if anyone was going to kill that particular blonde Slayer it should have been _him_. It would somehow be damn depressing if she was really dead.

"How did a Fjord get here anyway? Never heard of one in the lower 48. Or most of Canada for that matter," demon number two continued.

"They say he brought it here for a job," said demon one ominously.

"Eh? Who brought it?"

"You know. _Him. _Figured the Fjord would give it away," said the other demon gesturing wildly.

"Oh... OH. Wow. That guy came to visit our little town? Damn."

"Rumor says he was hired to kill the Slayer. Plus you know what they say, he never gives up and always finishes the job. Scary SOB that one. Makes me think twice about staying in town. Collateral damage can be intense, and I don't want to be another demon statistic."

"Well if the Slayer is dead he won't be coming back."

"And if she isn't?"

"Damn, you know the answer to that. He'll be back. And probably looking to attack with interest."

"Excuse me," said Spike for the first time interrupting the gossiping demons, "who is this bloke you two keep going on about? If he's got such a hard on for the Slayer maybe I should buy the guy a drink."

The two demons looked at him resentfully for butting into their conversation, but knowing Spike's reputation the two wisely decided to just humor the vampire and play ball.

"Beastmaster, vamp. That's who," the one Spike had designated 'demon one' said.

"Beastmaster hugh? Well he doesn't get any points for originality. So what's the deal on this 'Beastmater' fellow anyway?" asked Spike.

"He's old," began demon two, "real old. Rumor has it he was there when Rome was still a shitty town no better then all it's neighbors and saw it rise to all it's glory."

"Guy's a legend in demon circles," said demon one, the gossip in him starting to get animated, "never went for all that end of the world stuff. Been something of a mercenary forever. Spends most of his time hunting in jungles or mountains unless you can find him and offer him something valuable enough. Then he'll do a job for you."

"They call him 'Beastmaster' because he can control creatures with an animal level intellect, including demons. Not only is he insanely strong but he'll sic his pet monsters on you too. And everyone knows Beastmaster gets the job done."

"He never fails," agreed demon one, nodding his head.

Spike was silent for a few moments as he sipped his beer. Nothing that lived that long was to be underestimated. Creatures had to be extremely strong, clever and more than a bit lucky to live for thousands of years in the big bad dog-eat-dog world out there.

"So the rumor is this guy was paid to kill the Slayer," said Spike.

"That's right. It only makes sense. Some vamps I talked to swore they saw a big demon with the Fjord. Next thing you know the Fjord attacks the Slayer. Who else would be friendly with one of those things? My money is on the Beastmaster."

"Could be something else that was controlling that demon," said Spike, "wouldn't be the first time," he said, mind suddenly going to the Initiative.

"I suppose. But the Beastmaster theory is much more interesting. And hell, it might even be true."

Spike considered this before finishing off his drink and heading down to the basement of Willy's. It kinda bothered him that the Slayer might be dead and that he had nothing to do with it. He'd take the sewers to his crypt and wait for nightfall. He wanted to find out just what the hell had happened to the Slayer.

And what about this rumor of this Beastmaster bloke? Spike knew if something supposedly that big and bad came after you and you had no idea about it chances were pretty good you would end up dead. Even if you were the Slayer. Should he point the beastie in the right direction or try to work some other angle for his benefit?

There was also that ugly as sin Adam. Spike had some idea where he was hiding and had been thinking of going there tonight. But maybe that could wait just a bit. Sunnydale was just beginning to fill up with all sorts of interesting characters.

00000

Buffy had gone downstairs and talked to Giles briefly. Thankfully he hadn't called anyone to tell them that she was awake. The blonde wasn't sure she could face anyone right now. Now was not the time to face Willow or Xander or Riley. Buffy knew they would have words, there would probably be shouting and screaming and probably some crying in the mix. She couldn't deal with that right now. But Buffy needed to talk to a witch she could trust. Someone who would have a better idea of the magic that was used and what options they might have.

Buffy picked up the phone and, after looking it up, dialed Tara's number.

"Hello?" came the voice from the other side.

"Hi Tara. It's Buffy," said the blonde.

There was a surprised pause before a happy Tara spoke, "Buffy! Are you all right? We thought you would be unconscious for at least another day."

Buffy winced when Tara called out her name. If Willow was with Tara she wouldn't be able to hide -er _avoid_- the redhead now. "I'm fine Tara. Feeling pretty good, considering I've been gone from the world of the living for almost two weeks. Thanks for everything you did by the way, I heard a little about what you had to do to keep that stasis spell up and everything."

"Y-you're welcome. I could never turn my back on something like that. No n-need to thank me," said the witch sincerely.

Despite the situation, Tara's response caused Buffy to crack a small smile. Tara was always such a sweet and giving person. Buffy made a mental note to try to become better friends with the girl. It had become obvious some time ago she was an amazing person on her own, much more than just 'Willow's girlfriend.'

"Well I appreciate it all the same. Is um-, Willow isn't there with you is she?" said Buffy with some apprehension.

There was a pregnant pause. "N-no Willow isn't here. Did you try her dorm room?"

"No!" exclaimed Buffy, "I mean, no I haven't, I kinda didn't want to talk to her right now. I called wanting to talk to you."

"Oh," said Tara, sounding surprised, "w-well ok. How can I help?"

"We-me and Giles-are trying to see find some way to help Faith. Do you think you could come over? I feel like I need to have some options for magic that might be able to help. Maybe you would be able to do the stasis spell again?" asked Buffy hopefully.

There was a pause as Tara thought it over. "We may be able to do that. But we've pushed so hard I don't think we could do as good a job as we did with you. Do you want me to call Willow and ask her to go over?" asked Tara sounding a bit apprehensive.

"No. No don't Tara. I don't think I'd be able to have a civil conversation with her right now, after this crazy stunt she pulled with Faith. I know I'll have to talk to her soon but.. just not right now. Do you think you could come over? Set up the stasis spell and help brainstorm?" asked Buffy hopefully.

"W-well... after working with that spell for so long I should be able to do it on my own at m-more or less the same efficiency as I would with Willow. I'm rested enough now. I can leave in a few minutes."

"Thanks Tara. This means a lot to me," Buffy said honestly.

"N-no problem. I'll be over soon. Bye," said Tara as she hung up the phone.

00000

"Buffy? Something's going on with Faith," said Tara.

The other girl jumped a little at hearing the brunette witch's voice. She had been burying her nose in a book hoping to find something useful while half her mind was distracted elsewhere. Buffy tried not to let her heart sink to her stomach as she vaguely motioned for Tara to continue.

"It's a-actually unexpected. And It's good news. Or well, at least it isn't bad news," said Tara.

Buffy blinked. It wasn't everyday people got unexpected good news on the Hellmouth. She tried not to get carried away at the little flicker of hope she felt in her chest.

"Well what is it Tara?" Buffy said trying not to sound impatient. The other girl seemed to be having problems putting what she wanted to say into words.

"It's her fever. Surprisingly it's not that bad," said Tara.

Buffy was confused by what she was getting at. "I checked her a little while ago Tara. Faith was burning up. Are you saying the fever's gone down?" she asked.

Tara shook her head. "No, I don't think it's been going down. She does have a fever, but it's more or less holding steady at about 105 degrees. You have to understand at your worse your fever was over 150 degrees Buffy. Maybe it was peeling the magic from one person onto the other that weakened it. I don't know. But as long as it holds like this the fever won't kill her, which is how the poison typically kills it's victims."

Buffy mulled this over. It was obviously good news but she didn't know how optimistic or not this should make her. "So what does that mean? Does it mean she'll get over the poison on her own?" asked Buffy cautiously not willing to let her hopes get up too soon.

Tara shook her head. "I have no idea Buffy. The poison isn't just poison, it's magical. In some ways it's sort of similar to a spell with different parts to it. Whatever causes the fever seems to have weakened somehow. But whatever is causing her to remain unconscious hasn't changed, at least not as far as I can tell. She isn't likely to wake up on her own. But at least, for the time being, it doesn't seem like the fever will kill her."

Buffy took a deep breath and let out a big sigh of relief. She'd gotten the story from Tara about how moving the magic poison onto Faith _might_ have weakened the poison. It was good to see that it had actually done so.

There was just one more question she had to ask. One she had been thinking almost from the first time she heard what had been done to Faith.

"Can't you just give me the poison again?" asked Buffy, "I mean if it weakens every time it gets transferred over then it should be even weaker if you pass it to me again right? Besides I'm the one who got poisoned. If anyone should be in a coma from some nasty demon rabies it should be me. Faith shouldn't be in my place like this. Do you think you could transfer it over to me again? I'm sure if it weakened even further I would be able to fight it off," said Buffy. Not that she was sure of any such thing but she couldn't face the guilt of Faith going through what she was going through when it was Buffy who had let a demon take a chunk out of her arm. Besides Buffy had confidence in her own stamina. If it would weaken the poison further she should be the one to try and deal with it. Enemies or not Faith didn't deserve to be going through this.

Tara however gave her a sympathetic look. "I'm afraid we can't do that Buffy. The poison weakened your essence considerably, making more fragile. Think of it right now like you're recovering from a long debilitating illness. If you catch it again it would take a very short time for the poison to finish what it started. Even if it would normally only make you a little sick in the state you are in it would most likely kill you. I'm sorry Buffy but giving you back the poison is just not really an option for the time being. I certainly wouldn't risk it, and I'm pretty sure Willow wouldn't either. I think the one who has the best chance of fighting the poison off right now is Faith," said Tara sadly, clearly not happy with the situation.

Buffy felt dejected and not at all happy with the answer. She got up and started pacing. "What are we going to do Tara? Thanks to me she already spent eight months in a coma. Now because of me again she's stuck in some magical sleep coma? She was trying to make amends Tara. We're not friends, I don't trust her, I don't like her, but she was trying to do the right thing. She doesn't deserve this, this isn't right!" said Buffy in agitation, suddenly having the urge to punch or kick something but not seeing anything suitable to do so to.

Tara gave her a sad tinged smile. "I don't believe that. That you don't like her. I-I mean I've heard all the stories of the things she did. But t-that doesn't mean she'll always be like that. Plus you fought on the same side for a while and she did give you some last minute help against the Mayor. I-It's ok if you don't hate her Buffy," said Tara clearly and sincerely.

Buffy stopped her pacing. None of her friends had ever said anything like that to her. "Y-yeah I guess. That's a big part of why she drives me nuts. She's done awful things over and over again. But then once in a while she'll do something noble or self sacrificing or something. It throws me for a loop and I've never been able to figure out what goes on in that head of hers. I-I want to like her," said Buffy in a small voice. That admission seemed to take something out of her, and she sat down heavily in on one of the chairs, "I just _really_ don't feel like I can trust her."

Tara knew Buffy was talking about more than just trusting her not to physically hurting anyone. That part was obviously a big deal but that wasn't all there was to it. The witch wanted to offer Buffy words of comfort but she was hesitant because she felt that maybe somehow that wasn't her place. Instead she said, "I think for now we should think about figuring out more long term arrangements for Faith. I-I don't think she's in any immediate danger at the moment. We'll have more time t-to research, or maybe the poison will dissipate on its own with enough time. I'm not sure how likely that is but it's too early to give up hope."

"Right," said Buffy. "We'll think of something. And we won't stop looking."

"No," said Tara with a soft smile, "we won't."

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**That Night**

Willow was sitting on the couch of her parent's home (they were on a tour, again), wrapped in a blanket and drinking hot chocolate. She felt like hiding from the world. What she did was supposed to fix everything, yet it somehow felt like she had made a lot of things worse.

Tara wasn't talking to her. She wasn't taking Willow's calls and didn't want to listen to what she had to say. The redhead knew her girlfriend was angry and hurt but in true Tara fashion Willow knew the other girl would never lash out at her. Tara just needed space. What the other girl would decide after she had had her space was gnawing at Willow's insides with worry. Plus its not like she could be mad at Tara. All the things she had said were true. Willow had lied, had gone behind everyone's back to do something she knew they wouldn't approve of, AND she had done dark magic. That Willow hadn't realized how dark it was when she started wasn't really an excuse. She had been poisoning another human being with what was essentially a death sentence. Of _course_ it was dark magic she had been using even if it had not occurred to her that was what she was doing at the time.

Then there was the guilt. After the things Tara had said to her in Giles's apartment a lot of her justifications just sounded lame and petulant. But Willow just couldn't accept that she had been wrong in what she did. She had saved Buffy's life at the cost of a lying, life destroying murderess. How could she be sorry about saving her best friend's life? What else could she have done? It was the right thing to do. Wasn't it?

Even if it was the right thing to do she had probably killed Faith. Tears started flowing down her face, tears of pain and guilt. Willow began to cry in earnest. Suddenly feeling her traditional comfort drink of hot chocolate wasn't enough Willow stood up and went to her parent's liquor cabinet. She found a bottle of something, she didn't even bother to look at the label to see what it was only vaguely noting it was an amber liquid and probably quite high in alcohol. The girl went back to the couch and filled her half empty mug of hot chocolate with the amber alcohol. She took a couple of big sips and made a face at the horrible taste and the burning sensation it produced. It was scotch. Grimacing she took another long drink of her hot chocolate/scotch concoction.

Willow turned on the TV to the weather channel and for the first time in her life decided she was going to drink herself to oblivion. She got up and got ice and coca cola and brought them back to the couch. The redhead was going to drink in front of the tv until she passed out and didn't have to think about this anymore.

Willow was already on her third drink and already feeling decidedly drunk when there was a gentle knocking on the front door. No one really knew she would come here when she was down except Xander or the still unconscious Buffy. Deciding it must be Xander, Willow wrapped herself in a blanket and stumbled to go answer the door.

Not bothering to look in the peephole Willow opened the door. A hand rushed in and grabbed her by the shirt yanking her roughly out of the house. The redhead tried to scream as she found herself being lifted and thrown onto the grass in her front porch. The wet grass almost instantly made her cold in her PJ's. The redhead tried to scramble to her hands and feet when someone threw her on her back. She felt someone bend down over her, grab her by the shirt and pin her to the ground.

Willow looked up for the first time getting a good look at her attacker. She was very confused and suddenly more than a little scared. The man standing above her looked furious, and Willow sensed that he could vamp out at any moment.

"Angel?" she asked in a shaky voice. His gaze pinned her to the ground and she half expected to catch fire at the intensity of his gaze. There was another male figure standing somewhere behind Angel but all of Willow's attention was on the obviously pissed off vampire.

"What-" began the witch again confusedly.

"Willow," he growled at her, "What did you do with her? _Where the hell is Faith?_"

00000

A/N: So now we have a very pissed off Angel in town. It's nice to know that _someone_ is in Faith's corner. Next chapter we'll find out how Angel figured out the scoobs were the kidnappers, Buffy finally confronting at least some of the misguided scoobs, and the demon-cyborg Adam makes a move and forces the scoobs to rally and try to take care of that mess (will deviate a little bit from the canon).

Please offer me crack (and by crack I mean reviews. And like crack, reviews hyperaccelerate my writing).


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